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"Eighteen years -- combat sport. I think you will not find this in history, I believe." A sweaty, tightly muscled figure, he chugged from a Muscle Milk bottle and playfully fussed over his two young daughters -- Victoria, 6; and Kyara, 4 -- after a recent grueling gym workout with his Blackzilian fight team in Boca Raton, Fla. "It's just a farce that is perpetuated in MMA," said Catlin, who developed the test used to differentiate an individual's natural testosterone from the synthetic version. "If you say idiopathic hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, meaning 'I don't know why you have it, but you have low testosterone production and there is nothing wrong with your testes' -- well, that can happen because you are taking exogenous androgen steroids. That doesn't cut it."
As of Aug. 1, 2015, VADA had conducted drug testing for 18 professional fights. But the changing physiques and performance levels of some of the elite fighters tested by USADA suggest otherwise. These were the three fights that Mayweather had been tested for by USADA up until that time. And because the "B" samples were never tested, a loophole in Mayweather’s USADA contract would have allowed testing to continue without the positive "A" sample results being reported to Mayweather’s opponent or the Nevada State Athletic Commission. More specifically, it was rumored that Mayweather’s "A" sample had tested positive three times and, after each positive test, USADA had given Floyd an inadvertent use waiver. Pacquiao’s complaint, filed in the United States District Court for Nevada, alleged that Mayweather and several other defendants had falsely accused him of using, and continuing to use, illegal performance enhancing drugs.
Would USADA handle the testing of an Olympic athlete the way it handled the testing of Erik Morales? The way things stand now, how can any of USADA’s testing in any sport be trusted by the sports establishment or the public? If you’re doing honest testing, you don’t have a positive "A" and "B" sample and then another positive "A" and "B" sample and keep going until you get a negative result."
Indeed, former federal prosecutor Jeff Novitzky, who was instrumental in putting Conte behind bars, acknowledged in a recent interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience" that Conte now has "an anti-doping platform" and has come "over to the good side." Since then, Conte has undergone a remarkable transformation and is now a forceful advocate for clean sport. In some instances, fighters are starting to perform at an elite level at an age when they would normally be expected to be on a downward slide. Improved performances at an advanced age are becoming common. But his testimony before a grand jury investigating the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) made it clear that he used prohibited PEDs prior to his 2003 victory over Oscar De La Hoya. The home address, telephone number, and date of birth listed for Evan Fields in Applied Pharmacy’s records were identical to those of Evander Holyfield. The documents seized included records revealing that a patient named "Evan Fields" picked up three vials of testosterone and related injection supplies from a doctor in Columbus, Georgia in June 2004.
The spokesperson for USADA would not comment on why Tygart volunteered Zirbel’s T-E ratio information and not the three aforementioned athletes but did state that "blanket conclusions cannot be reached by simply comparing such factors in isolation." If Zirbel was using testosterone daily he would have to continue using it through nationals since low levels of the hormone are not conducive to athletic performance. Papp and almost every other expert familiar with testosterone agree that the drug is powerful only as a recovery agent and not a pick-me-up in the days or hours before a race. In a 1997 study Catlin reported that a transdermal testosterone gel applied as little as four hours before a drug screen could still defeat a T-E ratio test – well within Zirbel’s window of opportunity. Both negative tests sandwiched the positive test providing a narrow window for Zirbel to use testosterone without failing the T-E ratio test. Two days after nationals he tested negative out of competition.
Clenbuterol, a therapeutic drug first developed for people with breathing disorders such as asthma, is widely used by bodybuilders and athletes. In other words, Morales had tested positive for clenbuterol four times. If it tests negative, end of story; the athlete has tested "clean." If, however, the "A" sample tests positive, the athlete has the right to demand that the "B" sample be tested. A notable example is the fee paid to USADA for administering drug testing in conjunction with the May 2, 2015, Mayweather-Pacquiao fight.