Just one month after the highly-anticipated clash between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao fell through due to a disagreement over a blood-testing policy, Terry Newton, a British rugby player, made sports history when he officially became the first professional athlete to test positive for HGH. Newton originally provided a blood sample back in November, as the United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) agency requires players to submit random samples during the regular season and the offseason. When the test came back positive, Newton did not contest the result. In fact, on the contrary, he openly admitted to taking the substance and was immediately banned from the sport for two years.
"The way we carry out testing is very much based on target testing, suspicion or intelligence that an athlete might have been taking or abusing substances that they shouldn't be," a UKAD spokeswoman revealed. "One athlete could be tested five times, another athlete might not be tested." Travis Tygart, the CEO of the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), points to Newton's case as proof that HGH can indeed be detected through proper random blood tests. "All of us who have helped develop a test wouldn't put it in place if it wasn't forensically sound and reliable," Tygart explain in an interview with the New York Daily News. "Particularly in his case, it's proof positive the test works."
The UKAD spokeswoman continued, "Human growth hormone was found in his sample. This [HGH] test has been developed over the last few years and the test available to us is very reliable. And we're delighted we've now got the first finding [of a positive HGH test]. This should be a warning to other athletes [who] might have thought in the past that HGH was undetectable," she added.
Although Mayweather and Pacquiao have both moved forward with other bouts, there's no doubt that the issue of blood testing will not go away should they try to meet again in the future. And why should it? Given this latest development, perhaps Mayweather has a valid point in demanding that all future opponents agree to random blood testing. In a sport where two people are given full permission to inflict as much damage as possible throughout the course of 12 rounds, one would think that boxing would be at the forefront when it comes to ensuring the safety of its athletes.
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