The night before Floyd Mayweather put Manny Pacquiao down for the count, the boxer took an intravenous injection comprised of vitamins and saline, a banned substances according to WADA.
However, three weeks after the fight Mayweather was granted an exemption by USADA on the grounds that the actual substance wasn’t illegal. All is over right? Wrong.
According to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, the USADA does not have the authority to grant exemption to athletes, only the commission can, which has caused a major discrepancy in the regulatory power of each organization.
Furthermore, while the drug itself wasn’t illegal, the way it was administered was.
According to WADA:
“Intravenous infusions and/or injections of more than 50 ml per 6 hour period are prohibited except for those legitimately received in the course of hospital admissions, surgical procedures, or clinical investigations.”
And the injection far exceeded the legal limit as SBNation has reported:
“The first was a mixture of 250 milliliters of saline and multi-vitamins. The second was a 500-milliliter mixture of saline and Vitamin C. Seven hundred and fifty milliliters equals 25.361 ounces, an amount equal to roughly 16 percent of the blood normally present in an average adult male.”
Also, WADA considers the administration of drugs via IV illegal because injections of that nature can allow athletes and their medical staff to dilute or mask drugs that are currently in the body or will be in the system. We can see that this is an extremely fine line.
By definition and policy, what Floyd Maywether and his medical team did was illegal because the amount administered exceeded the limit, but the question we have to ask ourselves is: What comes next? because we are unsure what the punishment will be.
I do not foresee WADA imposing a sanction that would require to drop the fight; rather, a fine or subtraction of his winnings may be in order.
For more check out District Attorney Weighing Charges Against High school Players
Featured image via Ethicsalarms
