Who Pissed Hot? A Look At The Kendall Holt/Lamont Peterson HCG Saga

News

If the boxing world thought that the news surrounding Robert Guerrero’s arrest on gun charges this morning was enough to shake things it up, what must everyone have been thinking when the latest news regarding Lamont Peterson was released, revised and any other word you can think of?  Stated otherwise, it has been a strange day.

 

The news “cycle” about Peterson began around 12:30 pm eastern time when Lem Satterfield of Ring Magazine posted a story on www.ringtv.com (The Ring’s official website) with the title “Peterson Tests Positive for HCG.”  The article indicated, without quoting anyone, that according to “a source familiar with the fighter’s post-fight results,”  the drug tests conducted in conjunction with the February 22, 2013 IBF junior welterweight title bout in Washington, DC between Peterson and challenger, Kendall Holt revealed that Peterson tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (HGC).  This is a banned substance used to aid in weight loss or to “mask” other illegal substances that was made famous when baseball player Manny Ramirez tested positive for it in 2009. 

 

This was not the end of the story.  At around 1 PM eastern, Gabriel Montoya of Maxboxing and the leading boxing writer on issues surrounding performance enhancing drugs tweeted “I’ll have something on the Lamont Peterson story tonight on Maxboxing.  It will likely be very different from Lem’s story.”  Sixteen minutes later, Dan Rafael of ESPN tweeted that the IBF was saying that the drug testing report indicated “an ‘atypical finding for HCG.  But doesn’t say which fighter.”  At the same time, Ring Magazine’s website changed the title of Satterfield’s article to read “Peterson ALLEGEDLY tests positive…” (emphasis added).    Following a comment by Lou DiBella on twitter that “maybe Lem jumped the gun,” it appears that a link to the article was removed from the Ring’s website.  Then, at 2:30 pm eastern, Montoya tweeted that his source told him that Holt, not Peterson, was the fighter who tested positive. 

 

As of now, no one from the IBF, the Washington, DC commission or the Peterson camp (with the exception of their attorney who insists Peterson tested clean) is talking.  Holt has been tweeting about it but it appears that he is just as much in the dark as the rest of us.  His attorney, Pat English, told Montoya that reports that Holt tested positive are “[n]ot true to my knowledge.”  For now, we don’t know most of the facts sufficient enough to formulate opinions or proper questions.

 

However, one question that must be raised is this: The Washington, DC commission, headed by Sheldon Brown, had the results of the testing for a few weeks now and did not release them to the IBF or the fighters’ camps.  Instead, Brown publicly stated in a written notification to the camps of both fighters that the results of both fighters’ tests were negative.  How is that possible in light of the news provided by Satterfield’s, Montoya’s and Rafael’s sources?  And does this discrepancy explain why it took Brown so long to release the results when they had been continually requested by the IBF and Holt’s team? 

Yet another question: if Peterson didn’t test positive, will he pursue any remedies against Ring Magazine and Satterfield?  Remember, Ring Magazine is now owned by Golden Boy Promotions, the same outfit which just signed Peterson to an exclusive promotional contract last month and who will promote his upcoming May 18, 2013 fight with Lucas Matthyse.  Also, will this cause Peterson to demand strict testing for that and any future bouts?

As this story develops, more questions are sure to arise.

Please feel free to email Mike at mpg4321@aol.com and follow him on Twitter at @mikeyg4321.