Original Article: BoxingScene
Oct 10, 2018
By Steve Kim
Victor Conte is certainly no stranger to PED controversies.
The former head of BALCO has now re-invented himself as an anti-drug crusader of sorts in the sport of boxing and in recent years has supervised the strength-and-conditioning of boxers at his SNAC gym in Northern California.
Currently one of them is Demetrius Andrade, who was scheduled to face WBO middleweight belt-holder Billy Joe Saunders next weekend in Boston - but Saunders was denied a boxing license by the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission on Tuesday after he tested positive for Oxilofrine (a banned stimulant under the VADA guidelines).
So did Conte agree with this edict?
He told BoxingScene.com - "I have to tell you that I wanted to see Demetrius beat him and win the title in the ring, however, they agreed to do VADA testing, they signed the enrollment forms, they were given the 'prohibited substances' list. This potent stimulant was on the list and then Billy Joe Saunders tested positive for it.
''So really I don't see any other choice if they are going to consider VADA as the new gold-standard, which I believe it is and we don't have this in-and-out of competition testing and from the time they sign the agreement until they step into the ring and even afterwards that there will be testing for this complete list of substances not just this smaller list out-of-competition. I understand they pretty much had to rule the way that they did. So I think it's great for the anti-doping movement and for boxing."
Conte believes that in situations like this, there should be strict liability. That if a banned substance is in your system that you are responsible for it, regardless of how much or how it got there.
