This week’s panellists were asked to talk about the rise of performance-enhancing drugs in boxing
Ryan Walsh (Former British featherweight champion)
I suspect 98% of top athletes are doing them, with only a very small percentage of them unaware. The book “Game of Shadows” was very enlightening on this subject. Cheat or lose seems to be the idea. I also watched a documentary on the 1988 Seoul Olympics which was hugely enlightening. I lost a European title to a dirty, drug-using cheat, so, in my opinion, a ban should start at 10 years.
Denzel Bentley (British middleweight champion)
PEDs are more common than we think. A lot of top fighters get caught using them and then it all gets brushed under the carpet after a while because they bring in all the money. Never has a top-level fighter been popped for PEDs and either been banned for life or for longer than two years.
Maxi Hughes (Former British lightweight champion)
Maybe I’m naïve, but I still don’t believe PEDs are that common in the sport. That being said, I’m not that surprised when a failed test shows up, especially when there’s big money at play.
Bradley Skeete (Former British welterweight champion)
It seems a lot more common now that performance-enhancing drugs are being used at the top level of the sport. Sadly, more and more top-level fighters are testing positive for banned substances.