Did Floyd Mayweather use banned IV fluids before his fight with Manny Pacquiao? That’s the question everyone’s asking today after an investigative piece from SB Nation’s Thomas Hauser revealed inconsistencies in drug testing from the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).
According to Hauser, Mayweather received an injection prior to the fight, a cocktail of saline, vitamin C and multi-vitamins. The vitamins obviously aren’t banned, but IV administration is generally frowned upon and prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in large part because it can mask the use of other agents, in some cases, performance enhancing drugs. Furthermore, it can mask the use of existing substances “already in the recipient’s system or might be added to it in the near future.”
But that’s not the worst part of this whole thing.
Eighteen days after the fight and 19 days after the injection, Mayweather filed (and was granted) a TUE exemption. For those of you unfamiliar, an explanation from the USADA:
In some situations, an athlete may have an illnesses or condition that requires the use of medication listed on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List. USADA can grant a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) in these situations in compliance with the World Anti-Doping Agency International Standard for TUEs. The TUE application process is thorough and designed to balance the need to provide athletes access to critical medication while protecting the rights of clean athletes to complete on a level playing field.
Oddly enough, Manny Pacquiao was denied an exemption just three weeks before the fight. Pacquiao, of course, was fighting a serious shoulder injury and asked for an injection to relieve the pain.
Anyway, we all know what happened after that, a unanimous decision victory for Mayweather on May 2. This is all very fishy.
You can read SB Nation’s fascinating and scathing report about the USADA and Floyd Mayweather here.
