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  • Floyd Mayweather, drug testing, mind games and hoaxes: Floyd's got tricks


Lee Cleveland Updated
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Yesterday, Team Mayweather sent ripples through the boxing world for declining to agree to terms for a penalty that would cost either man $5 million in the event of a failed drug test before or after their May 2 superfight.

"... We were informed that Mayweather turned down the request," Michael Koncz, Manny's manager, said yesterday.



And while both men have agreed to partake in random testing for the presence of performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), the penalty for testing positive has not yet been settled.

"It was very simple," Koncz said by telephone. "If Manny failed a test, he would have to pay $5 million. If Floyd failed, he would have to pay $5 million."

What does this mean?

Essentially, a failed drug test would amount to nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

But wait, wasn't the concept of advanced drug testing Floyd's idea from the start?

From 2009 to 2012, negotiations between the camps failed when Team Pacquiao refused to undergo full drug testing. Moreover, Floyd has been hellbent that Olympic-style drug testing be performed for all of his fights since.

Why the apparent change of heart?

It's all an elaborate hoax... Mind games.

Floyd Mayweather wants Manny Pacquiao to think he may be using PEDs.


If Floyd can convince Manny he may not be clean, or at least place a seed of doubt in Manny's mind, it'll give Manny something else to worry about and, perhaps, give Pac-Man a false sense of in-security in training and during the fight.


It's all a ruse to deflate Pacquiao's confidence.

1. Floyd hired strength and conditioning guru Alex Ariza who formely worked for Team Pacquiao and has become a controversial figure of sorts.

2, Floyd then hired chemist Memo Heredia who, in the past, was perhaps the most prolific PEDs dealer in sports, and supplied hard-to-detect PEDs to many pro athletes. A wizard in high-level cheating, he would crack the World Anti-Doping Agency's testing code before being caught by the feds in the BALCO scandal.

3. Floyd refused to agree to accept a $5 Million penalty should he or Manny test positive for a performance-enhancing drug.

If Floyd were really engaging in wrongdoing, would he be so obvious? He's the highest paid athlete in the world and can certainly afford to be more covert.

Has this something similar to this been done before?

Yes... and it worked.

Evander Holyfield vs Mike Tyson II (1997)

According to fight legend Evander Holyfield's book, 'The Holyfield Way,' Mike Tyson refused to rematch Holyfield in 1997 unless his foe engaged in an advanced form of PEDs testing.


"There was a prior hint of this defeatist attitude a few weeks earlier when Marc Ratner, the executive director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, called to tell me that Tyson would not fight Evander, unless he took a steroid test"

Evander devised a brilliant solution. He agreed to submit to testing provided the results would not be released until after the fight.


Evander explains:

"I was happy to take a steroid test, because I have never used steroids in my life, but I didn't want Tyson to have comfort of knowing that I was not using steroids."

"I wanted Tyson to continue to think that I had an unfair advantage over him so he would give himself an excuse for losing again."

The Result
Iron Mike's confidence was sapped by Round 2. He would eventually snap in the ring and bite Holyfield's ears, prompting a disqualification.

Mayweather's actions 
By, perhaps, resorting to mind games, Floyd is attempting to get the psychological upperhand over his opponent. 

It's doubtful Floyd is cheating but if he can convivce Manny that he is, he may reap the benefits of gaining an unfair advantage. 

Psychological warfare is no joke.

Some will continue to think Floyd is using PEDs but what really matters is what Manny believes. If Floyd's actions have planted a seed of doubt in Pacquiao's mind, the ruse will have worked.

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