Compiled by PHILIP REID

Hint of drugs in the sweet science leaves a sour taste

DOES ANYONE worry, or even wonder any more, about where boxing – of the professional kind – is going? Inside the past couple of weeks, we’ve had the death of a legend, aka Smokin’ Joe Frazier, which gave us some nostalgia but really only served to stir up all that was bad about his relationship with Muhammad Ali; and, yet, it was a win a week later by Manny Pacquiao which probably said more about the inner workings and dealings and murkiness of the pro game.

Remember? Pacquiao, in many eyes the best pound-for-pound champion in the sport, got a controversial majority points win from the judges in his WBO Welterweight fight with Juan Manuel Marquez.

The Filipino claimed he deserved the win and, of course, the Mexican claimed he should have won again, stirring memories of a previous controversial decision against him. Split, controversial decisions: that’s the game, always has been, as Kenny Egan knows from the Beijing Olympics.

Still, almost two weeks on from the latest win by The Pacman, it was the Nevada State Commission’s announcement, and the need for it, informing us that both fighters had tested negative for drugs which reminded us of the demon that has been shunted under the covers in this sport.

It is that of drugs.

Drugs, and the lack of real regulation throughout the myriad of professional bodies that have sucked the once noble art for all that they can.

Once upon a time, it was Madison Square Garden in New York that acted as the magnet for the top bouts until money talked louder and louder and, increasingly, it was Las Vegas which became its heartbeat. Las Vegas.

It is now how it is, and most of the big fights are staged there in venues like the MGM Grand, Caesars Palace, the Silver Nugget and a dozen more. Glitzy, showbiz bouts. But, when all is said and done, bouts which mainly leave the question of drugs and steroid use in the sport hidden away from view.

The problem with drug testing in professional boxing, and particularly when world title fights are held in the United States, is that the various boxing organisations consider themselves to be private entities that exist outside the jurisdiction of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada).

So it is that fighters are only tested if they agree to such drug-testing regimes in pre-bout contracts, although the aim ultimately, if ever, is that random testing – such as that agreed by Floyd Mayweather and Shane Mosley earlier in the year – should be mandatory.

For most professional fights, though, drug testing is not required and is, at best, cursory.

Even when fighters have been found guilty of using drugs, the attitude would seem to be that of ambivalence.

For instance, when Roy Jones Jr and his opponent Richard Hall both tested positive for using androstenedione, the IBF allowed Jones to keep his title and was not even suspended.

And when, in 2005, James Toney defeated John Ruiz to win the WBA Heavyweight title – but later tested positive for the anabolic steroid stanozolol – he received only a 90-day ban.

Indeed, the drugs issue has long been divisive in the setting up of any Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown.

The Pacman – who has never tested positive for taking drugs – has long had the finger pointed at him by the Mayweather camp and a fight seen by many as the one that could save professional boxing has failed to take place because neither side has managed to agree on a fair drug-testing schedule.

Mayweather wants Olympic-style random drug and urine testing, but Pacquiao won’t agree to those demands.

If he claims to be clean and has tested negative whenever any tests have been carried out, the big question mark that hangs over Pacquiao’s reluctance to undergo the more stringent Olympic-style random testing is one of his own making.

Negotiations for the two to get together in the ring have fallen apart on a number of times over the years – even though each of them stands to earn an estimated $100 million from going toe-to-toe – and it is the drugs-testing issue that has been the crux to the standoff.

In this case, money, it would seem, is not the be all and end all of the matter. And, really, does anyone really care whether or not the fight ever gets the go-ahead?

Montgomerie's latest tour of duty

WHETHER YOU like him, loath him or couldn’t care less about him, Colin Montgomerie – even if he is struggling to hole a putt these days and has to go back to the 2007 European Open in the good old days at The K Club since his last win on the PGA European Tour – still has a way of grabbing his share of the limelight.

For the past few days, the Scot – captain of the winning European team in last year’s Ryder Cup match at Celtic Manor in Wales – has been hiking the famous gold trophy around Afghanistan in visiting British troops stationed there.

Monty may not be a Bob Hope, who entertained US troops in wartime, but we trust that a certain David Feherty – who once described Montgomerie as being “like a bulldog licking piss off a nettle” and on another occasion as resembling “a warthog chewing the head off a wasp” – has some new-found respect for his old pal. Feherty has been a fervent supporter of US troops in Iraq.

Interestingly, a visit to Kabul’s one and only golf course was also included in Monty’s itinerary. The course, apparently, has survived everything from the Taliban to landmines.

Of course, Monty would have to travel slightly further east to find what is considered the most dangerous golf course of them all.

It is, in fact, a solitary improvised golf hole.

Located between the US-South Korean military base and the demilitarised zone with North Korea, the hole – named after a US solider called Bonifas – is in the middle of an active minefield.

GAA take initiative over binge drinking

A YEAR on from a study which showed over 90 per cent of its members were drinkers and that 54 per cent admitted to binge drinking, the GAA’s response – in launching the “Off The Booze and On The Ball” initiative – shows that actions do indeed speak louder than words.

That study in November 2010 (carried out and evaluated by Trinity College and published in the BioMed Central Research Notes) was a bit of an eye-opener to the GAA and, whether directly or indirectly, the launch of the new initiative some 12 months later is one that other sporting bodies could well follow.

The GAA’s President Christy Cooney has thrown down the health challenge to club players all over the country to abstain from alcohol for the month of January and, in doing so, to seek sponsorship to go towards their local club. Participants in the initiative will also be asked to make themselves the designated driver for family and friends through the month of abstinence.

This latest move is another forward step by the GAA – who run an Alcohol and Substance Abuse Programme nationally in conjunction with the HSE – but there is no sign yet of any blanket ban on alcohol sponsorship. Although it ended Guinness’s sole title sponsorship of the senior hurling championship which ran from 1995-2008, Guinness remains in the multi-tier sponsorship introduced in 2009 and currently co-sponsors the championship alongside Ethiad Airways and Centra under the Champions League-style arrangement.

Some Model County women

WEXFORD’S BACK-TO-BACK All-Ireland winning camogie players have proved a hit on the fashion catwalk as well as Croke Park’s hallowed turf, with the launch of a calendar – with part of the proceeds going to charity – depicting them in art-house pictures well away from the comfort zone of a camogie pitch.

In what brings a new meaning to them being seen as role models, award-winning fashion photographer Dermot Byrne has, in The Model County 2012, captured the players-turned-models in arty photos which include one of Eimear O’Connor that won a prize in the fashion category at the Irish Press Photographers’ Awards.

Another has Jean Hayden standing on a toilet pot!

Pictured is the calendar’s cover.

Keane's medal of honour

FOR A player who has had so many clubs – ranging from Wolves to Coventry, Inter Milan to Leeds, Spurs to Liverpool and back again, Celtic to West Ham and now LA Galaxy – you couldn’t begrudge Robbie Keane getting his hands on some silverware again, even if, to most of us, the MLS Cup pales in comparison to a Champions League or Premier League medal.

Indeed, it requires a bit of self-inflicted pinching to realise that Keane’s ONLY ever medal in a career that has seen him almost have more clubs than the legendary manager Tommy Docherty came with Spurs in the English League Cup win of 2008.

Now, that medal has company . . . and surely it merits a song or two from the crooner whenever he next makes it to Gibneys in Malahide.