So the news started breaking about midday Thursday afternoon that  Ex-Super Welterweight Champ Ricardo Mayorga failed his drug test after his loss to Oscar De La Hoya last Saturday night.

 

According to reports, trace amounts of the drug Lasix, also called Furosemide, showed up in his post fight drug test. Preliminary reports informed us that Lasix is a diuretic, and it was used to help boxers lose weight.

 

Unfortunately, using Lasix to drop weight is banned by the Nevada State Athletic Commission because it can be used to mask illegal drugs, as it has been shown to do in horse racing due to it being a diuretic.

 

Having heard that Lasix is prominently used in horse racing, I contacted a thoroughbred aficionado. His email reply said, Lasix is used in horse racing to stop bleeding slight or otherwise in the nasal and throat passages. What it is also believed to do is clear up the entire nasal passage, insuring maximum breathing, which in turn ends up enhancing a horse's performance. Call it the ultimate decongestant, and a performance enhancer. Hence the ban in boxing.

 

Intrigued, I started Googling. The medication Furosemide, sold under the brand name "Lasix", is a powerful diuretic that causes fluids locked up in the horse's body tissues to be released and expelled in the urine.

 

Some experts contend that Lasix has a stimulating effect on some horses that enhances their performance beyond what it would normally be.

 

Lasix, by the way, is prescribed for human athletes as a diuretic to treat respiratory bleeding.

 

Any knowledgeable handicapper, meanwhile, will tell you if a horse is a first-time Lasix user and has shown good early speed in past races only to fade in the stretch, the poor late performance might be due to breathing problems. Hence Lasix might enable the horse to sustain his early performance to the wire and win.

 

Furthermore, there are those who suggest that the increased urinary output of the horse flushes away traces of other, illicit, performance-enhancing substances in the bloodstream.

 

The use of a diuretic can mask the use of anabolic steroids, stimulants, cannabis or other banned substances. The use of masking agents is "nothing new - it has been used for many years by sportsmen wishing to conceal their steroid use."

 

Thus, for a while after diuretic use, no anabolic steroid theoretically should be found in the urine of the steroid user.

 

WOW! A performance enhancing drug that also acts as a masking agent for Steroids. Talk about a wicked One-Two combination!

 

As I continued my research I came across another interesting note, Rosendo Alvarez, who like Mayorga hails from Managua, Nicaragua, and is a former stablemate of Mayorga, failed a drug test after his losing fight to Jorge Arce last month in Las Vegas. Banned substance found, Lasix! Penalty, $8000 fine and eight months suspension, we won't see him boxing in Nevada until 2007.

 

The most interesting piece of info from the Alvarez drug suspension could be found in the Las Vegas sport pages, where it said Alvarez failed to make the weight for his scheduled 112-pound bout with Arce, weighing in on April 7 at 115, but said he did not take the drug in an attempt to help him lose weight.

 

Once again, just the facts! But the statement does beg for an answer to the question, "If you didn't take it to lose weight, what did you take it for?" Rosendo? Ricardo? Anybody?

 

A week before the big "Danger Zone" fight took place, Boxing2006/Pound4Pound reported that Golden Boy was already expressing concerns about suspensions and fines that a Mayorga corner man , Stacey McKinley served in the past for illegal substances used in the corner. They brought those concerns to The Nevada State Athletic Commission, and as it turns out, if the findings of Mayorga's positive drug test play out, their hunch would certainty seem to merit at least an appearance by McKinley before the Commission.

 

We spoke to Robert Kies from Golden Boy Promotions who said of the findings, " It's unfortunate this kind of stuff has to take place but we are just happy that Oscar won in such dominate fashion. We know the commission is doing a good job and will handle this situation properly. It's unfortunate that some people can't play by the rules." 

 

Alan Hopper, a spokesman for Don King Promotions, which represents Mayorga said,  “We’re thinking there must be a trainer or physician in Nicaragua that is recommending this for boxers.”

 

Really? If a trainer or physician in Nicaragua is recommending this for boxers, and it is Don King's responsibility to oversee his fighter, it would appear DK was lapse in his duties. Blaming the bad drug test on some unknown figures in Nicaragua is a cop-out, and one hopes the Nevada commission has some tough questions for Don King Promotions to maintain the integrity of the sport.