HOUSTON – The negative result of Juan Manuel Marquez’s drug test for his welterweight fight against Manny Pacquiao a week ago bears out the earlier claims by strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia that the Mexican is not into performance-enhancing drugs.
“Like I said in the beginning, we haven't done anything illegal, and the result showed it,” said Heredia during the official weigh-in for the super-bantamweight title fight between Nonito Donaire Jr. and Jorge Arce on Friday (Saturday, Manila time), a few hours after the Nevada State Athletic Commission released the results of the urine tests done on both Marquez and Pacquiao.
NSC executive director Keith Kizer announced that post-fight tests done on Pacquiao and Marquez were both negative. The two fighters provided the commission with their urine samples shortly after their December 8 match which the Mexican won via a stunning sixth-round knockout.
Kizer said both boxing stars were negative for anabolic steroids, masking agents, and marijuana, although doping tests done by the commission are not as stringent done in other major events like the Olympics or the Tour de France.
Not a few suspected Marquez of being into performance-enhancing drugs after he bulked up for his fourth meeting with Pacquiao through the aid of Heredia, who once testified in court that he supplied illegal substances to shamed track stars Marion Jones and Tim Montgomery.
“But you can’t judge anybody by association,” he explained. “And neither can you judge anybody drug positive when there is none.”
That Marquez beat Pacquiao in such decisive fashion didn’t come as a surprise to Heredia, an exercise science program graduate at Texas A&M.
“We worked a lot of strength, we worked a lot of power, we worked a lot on speed,” he stressed. “What people don’t see is that Pacquiao was coming forward, but Marquez was explosive and was able to throw that punch.”
Heredia said anybody could have been knocked down by that vicious punch, even Marquez if it was Pacquiao who happens to be at the right position.
Unfortunately for the Filipino boxing legend, it was Marquez who was in the perfect place at the perfect time.
“It was the right momentum and right angle,” he said.
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