The spotlight was on Shane Mosley last January 24 as he faced Antonio Margarito at the Staples Center. Margarito wasn’t able to do anything about Mosley’s aggressive attacks for the first six rounds. Although he was able to fight back on the seventh, this wasn’t enough to throw Mosley off. After a knockdown on the eighth round, Margarito was knocked out on the ninth after 43 seconds of trying to put up with his opponent.

What is truly amazing aside from the great determination that Mosley showed during the battle is that he kept his focus from round one. Mosley is facing several trials in his life right now. He just fired his father, Jack, from being his trainer. He is dealing with divorce from his wife, Jin, who had also been his manager. And he is facing an anabolic steroids scandal to which many legal actions against him are attached.

From ESPN News:

Outside the ring, Mosley – a former lightweight champ, now a two-time welterweight champ and unified junior middleweight champion – has had a lot of problems in recent months. He’s continually been dogged by his involvement in the BALCO steroids scandal and his admission that he had used substances given to him by disgraced BALCO boss Victor Conte before his second win against Oscar De La Hoya in September 2003. They turned out to be designer steroids “the clear” and “the cream.” He also admitted to being injected with EPO, the blood oxygen enhancer.

Last Saturday night, Mosley put on one of the greatest battles in his career. He may have regained the welterweight championship but it makes you wonder if this would be enough to help him regain the respect of those around him

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While Shane Mosley is waiting to battle it out with WBA welterweight champion Antonio Margarito on January 24, his legal team has been publicly battling it out with BALCO founder and owner Victor Conte.

Back in 2003, Mosley was one of the athletes involved with the BALCO Labs steroid scandal. Investigators reported that Mosley had received designer steroids (”the clear” and “the cream”) and was doping before his fight with Oscar De La Hoya the same year. Mosley was firm on his defense that he thought BALCO was selling him legal vitamins. Conte, on the other hand, claimed that the boxer knew he was taking steroids. Darryl Hudson, Mosley’s then-strength and conditioning coach, sided with Conte.

From Maxboxing:

But in 2007, as he prepared for a bout with Miguel Cotto, an SI.com report was published that detailed his use of two separate designer steroids and EPO prior to his bout with De La Hoya in 2003. When asked about this by Tim Smith of the New York Daily News in a story that came out on September 29, 2007 (’Shane Mosley admits to using BALCO steroids’) he would state, “We were misled by (Conte). I guess I got the clear and the cream.”

To which Conte would respond via email, “I’ve never misled or deceived any athlete. I’ve always been a man of full disclosure.”

Then Mosley would tell Lance Pugmire of the LA Times in November of that year that his then-strength and conditioning coach Darryl Hudson had influenced him to take the BALCO products, saying to him that they would be, “icing on the cake.” It wasn’t soon after that Hudson would file a defamation suit versus Mosley.

There have been many discrepancies with Mosley’s stories, and Conte is prepared to address each and every detail that had been turned around. After all, Conte is not a novice in legal suits. He had been involved in a similar case with Marion Jones, a multi-gold medalist track and field athlete. Conte had come clean and eventually, Jones admitted to have used anabolic steroids amidst initially filing a defamation suit against Conte. Apparently, Jones’ first statement also claimed that she thought Conte had been selling her vitamins.

Mosley will be facing the court this January 15th in San Francisco, just a few days before his match.

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From The Independent:

In the 100m quarter-finals in the Bird’s Nest, Usain Bolt flew down the track to the 50-metre mark, then shut down his engine and coasted to victory in 9.92sec. Breaking 10 seconds is still considered a sporting feat of note, but Bolt did it without breaking sweat. It was obvious then that the 9.70sec barrier would not survive the final.

And so it proved, although nobody could have envisaged the breathtaking manner in which Bolt would shatter it. Some suggested it was as stunning as Ben Johnson’s 9.79sec win in Seoul back in 1988. But, even pumped up to the yellowing eyeballs on anabolic steroids, Big Bad Ben did not produce quite such a jaw-dropping performance in the most notorious Olympic 100m final. He was flat to the boards until he raised an index finger in celebration as the finish line approached. His winning margin over Carl Lewis was 0.13sec.

Bolt started his celebrations some 20m from the line, stretching out both arms in a “Hey, get me” statement, then beating his right fist against his chest. He still managed to stop the digits on the trackside clock at 9.69, and won by a margin of 0.20sec – a veritable street in sprinting terms.

The clowning that followed was far from the preening arrogance of so many American speed merchants down the years. It was a joyous, natural breath of fresh air from a young man who has redefined the term Cool Runnings.

In an event that looked to be in terminal decline from a barrage of drug scandals, the Lightning Bolt was just what the doctor might have ordered for the mens’ 100m, and for track and field. He had fueled himself on chicken nuggets, and he proceeded to have Michael Johnson’s treasured 200m world record for breakfast. With a little help from his Jamaican friends, he also consigned the 4 x 100m relay world record to history.

Bolt’s impressive performance on the track in Beijing had not only yielded accolades but scrutiny as well.

BALCO founder Victor Conte voiced out his concern in connection with athletes like Bolt who hail from Caribbean countries. Most of these countries lack independent anti-doping agencies to check the cleanliness of these athletes according to confessed and jailed steroid supplier Conte.

American sprint star Carl Lewis similarly expressed his disbelief of Bolt’s performance with this statement: “I’m still working with the fact he dropped from 10-flat to 9.6 in one year,” American Lewis was quoted as saying. “I think there are some issues … countries like Jamaica do not have a random (dope control) program so they can go months without being tested.”

Bolt, in response, said: “I know I’m clean. I work hard for what I want,”

“I know what he said. To me it doesn’t really matter what he said, a lot of people were saying that.

“Carl Lewis can say whatever he wants. That’s just his opinion,” Lewis said

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In what may be a prelude to their meeting in court, Victor Conte and Shane Mosley traded accusations in connection with the boxer’s defamation suit.

Mosley had filed the suit in a New York state court against the founder of the California-based supplement company known as BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative). This is Mosley’s move to refute Conte’s allegations that he watched the boxer injected himself with performance-enhancing drugs and that Mosley knew what he was taking.

Mosley admitted that he had used performance-enhancing drugs but he continually insists that he didn’t know then that what he was taking were anabolic steroids.

Conte’s lawyer filed a motion to dismiss Mosley’s suit and among the documents he filed was an affidavit that detailed the drugs and payments made by Mosley before he defeated Oscar De La Hoya in September 2003.

“I believe it is time for Shane Mosley to receive the consequences he deserves for lying about his use of performance enhancing drugs,” Conte said Tuesday in an e-mail to USA Today. “Other athletes associated with BALCO who have lied about their use of drugs have been banned from their sport, stripped of their records and medals and even spent time in jail.”

Meanwhile, Judd Burstein, Mosley’s lawyer, said Conte’s allegations “are completely false” and that he us sure that they will have a day in court. “I’m salivating to get Victor Conte under cross examination,” Burstein said.

From USA Today:

Among the documents Conte’s lawyer, Thomas Harvey, said he filed along with a motion to dismiss Mosley’s suit, is an affidavit in which Conte says he charged Mosley $900 for EPO and $600 for the steroids known as “the cream” and “the clear.” Conte says he billed Mosley an additional $150 for blood work and $200 for the limousine Mosley used during his visit to Conte’s offices. Conte also says Mosley paid him $500 in cash and, later, $1,350 by personal check.

The World Boxing Council revealed earlier this month it is investigating the doping allegations against Mosley, who won his WBC junior middleweight title fight against De La Hoya by a decision.

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An AP report focuses on the high-tech side of the most massive doping scandal in the United States referred to as the BALCO Affair.

There is an ongoing legal dilemma amongst federal judges relating to the seizure of urine samples of more than 100 major league players not originally involved in the BALCO steroid investigation.

The battle is now at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in which an 11-member panel must decide whether prosecutors had the legal right to seize the names and urine samples of the 104 players during a raid carried out in 2004.

“There has to be limits when the government seizes vast amount of information on a computer,” Major League Baseball Players Association lawyer Elliot Peters said.

The federal agents who took the material from the Long Beach-based Comprehensive Drug Testing Inc. had a search warrant for the test results of just 10 players, but discovered on a computer spreadsheet the test results of additional players.

The players’ association went to court, and lower-court judges ruled the additional names were seized illegally. A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit reversed those decisions twice in 2-1 votes, but the entire 9th Circuit set the reversal aside and decided to hear the case en banc.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Wilson argued Thursday the government had a legal right to investigate all of the players who tested positive because their names and test results were on a single document containing the names of the 10 players listed in the search warrant. Wilson said since the government was entitled to 10 players’ test results, it was entitled to the entire spreadsheet.

Wilson’s argument was attacked early and often by at least six judges, who expressed doubt that a computer spreadsheet is analogous to a paper document, which investigators have a right to seize so long as it contains evidence listed in the search warrant.

“When you are talking about computers, a single document can contain vast amounts of information,” Judge Kim Wardlaw said.
A
Judge Mylan Smith was even more pointed, complaining that allowing the government on narrowly focused investigations to seize computer databases, hard drives and spreadsheets containing large amounts of information “would probably be frightening to the public because there’s no end to it.”

The BALCO Affair has involved several famous athletes and has resulted to congressional hearings and independent investigations. Most prominent of these investigations is the Mitchell Report, which has probed the use of steroids in the Major League Baseball.

Several personalities were prosecuted and jailed because of their involvement in said scandal including BALCO’s founder Victor Conte, chemist Patrick Arnold who designed “the clear”, containing testosterone, an anabolic steroid, and track athlete Marion Jones.

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Disgraced sprinter Marion Jones once again appeared in a TV show to profess her innocence in the BALCO doping controversy that has ruined many athletes’ stellar career.

In her recent appearance on “Good Morning America” Jones  admits the incident may have ruined her reputation forever but she hopes that she can prevent others from committing the mistakes she has made. This is the same mantra she uttered at the “Oprah Winfrey Show”, her first interview since she was released from prison in September. Expect the same tune to be played in 2009 as the former track star is apparently running a crusade to “reach out” to youths out there.

“I have paid the ultimate price,” she said on “Good Morning America“. “For the rest of my life, certain people will equate me with this controversy.

“Throughout all of this I’ve learned I’ve hurt a lot of people and it’s my responsibility to give back,” the 33-year-old said.

Up to this day, Jones insists she has no knowledge that prohibited compounds were being administered to her. This despite of her six-month imprisonment for lying about her anabolic steroid use and her involvement in a check-fraud scheme.

BALCO’s Victor Conte had consistently refuted Jones’ claims. “She did the injection with me sitting right there next to her,” he said in December 2004.

Between these two controversial figures, who do you think people would believe?

From ABC News:

The once-heralded runner was at the top of her game and had the nation’s admiration, and a life that glittered as much as the gold medals she picked up on the Olympic circuit. But a doping scandal stripped her of her Olympic medals, and the one-time fastest woman in the world spent six months in prison after she was convicted in January of lying to federal prosecutors about her use of performance-enhancing drugs and her role in a check-fraud scam.

“I was in a much different place in my life. I made much different choices. I made bad decisions,” said Jones, who missed her youngest son’s first birthday due to jail time.

The sportswoman still contends — as she always has — that she was unaware that drugs were being administered to her.

“That’s the truth. I have experienced a lot of negative consequences for what I’ve admitted,” she said. “When you’re a high-profile person, you trust certain people around you. You trust they will have your best interests in mind.”

On Oprah, Jones apologized to her teammates who were stripped of their medals and records because of her doping violation during the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“When I stepped on that track, I thought everybody was drug-free, including myself,” Jones said. “I apologize for having to put everybody through all of this.

“I’m trying to move on. I hope that everybody else can move on, too.”

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According to the New York Daily News, boxer champ Shane Mosley is on the verge of being disqualified from the boxing world.

This developed as court transcripts revealed that prior to his fight with Oscar De La Hoya in 2003 Mosley had used anabolic steroids and EPO. Mosley won the title in said encounter. In a little under three months, Mosley confessed his doping activity before a grand jury.

The court transcripts were formerly held at protective order until they were recently released by US District Judge Susan Illston in connection with the Barry Bonds doping trial.

Because of Mosley’s apparent violation of the sport’s anti-doping policy, the World Boxing Council is taking steps to address the issue.

“It was a real surprise to read that Mosley has confessed that he did take those medicines, those drugs that are totally prohibited by the WBC,” said the Council’s president, Jose Sulaiman. “The WBC rules state that we must have a hearing. This is a matter of serious concern to us.”

“Thus far the WBC has seen only press reports, and must therefore investigate any available evidence and review it, in terms of the WBC rules and regulations’ anti-doping provisions,” said Robert Lenhardt, an attorney for the WBC.

WBC’s board of governors has the power to disqualify or fine a boxer even after the conclusion of a fight.

According to the WBC rules, no boxer “shall be under the influence of any drug during the contest that will in any manner affect their performance in the ring.”

Mosley’s next ring assignment is slated Jan. 24 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. He’s due to exchange blows with WBA welterweight title holder Antonio Margarito.

The Daily News had also reviewed the “doping calendars” seized at the BALCO raids in which Mosley’s doping activity was recorded. Below is its interpretation of the BALCO’s doping calendar and testimony.

The notations include the letters “L”, “C” and “E,” along with notations for when to take iron (2 iron), vitamin E (vit), folic acid (1 f) and B12 (1 B12). “L” stands for “liquid,” or “the clear,” which is the designer steroid THG. “C” stands for “the cream,” which is an epitestosterone/tesosterone substance. “E” stands for the blood booster EPO.

During the month of August, Mosley’s calendar says he took EPO eight times, injecting himself twice on each occasion on each side of his belly button.

At the bottom of the calendar the date of his fight with De La Hoya is noted - Sept. 13.

There are also notations at the top of the July calendar for the money Mosley paid Conte for his drugs. He paid the BALCO founder a total of $1850.

Here is the breakdown of Conte’s complicated math:

$1,650 = $900 (for EPO) + $600 (for “the clear and the cream”) + $150 (for blood tests)

$1,650 - $500 (paid in cash) = owes $1,150

$1,150 + $200 (Gateway Limo to airport) = $1,350 (paid by check)

In his grand jury transcript, Mosley admits to paying $500 in cash and $1350 by check.

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New York Daily News has reviewed the doping calendars that were seized during the BALCO raids, as well as the recently released court transcripts of Shane Mosley’s grand jury testimony, and revealed the boxer had used performance-enhancing drugs in his preparation with his encounter against Oscar Dela Hoya in 2003. The court transcripts were formerly held at protective order until they were released by U.S. District Judge Susan Illston last Wednesday.

From Daily News:

Doping calendars seized in the BALCO raid show that champion boxer Shane Mosley scaled back his use of the notorious doping agent EPO in the two weeks before his Sept. 13 title fight with Oscar De La Hoya, as his blood grew unnaturally thick with oxygen-rich red blood cells.

That corresponds with previous reports that seized medical records showed Mosley’s hematocrit – a measure of red blood cells, and therefore endurance – shooting up 8.2% in just two weeks.

Hematocrit readings rarely fluctuate that much naturally, and usually linger in the low 40s for non-doping men. Anything over 50 will get an Olympic cyclist or marathon runner suspended from competition. Mosley jumped from 44 to 52.2 in two weeks as he prepared for the fight, according to a Sept. 28, 2007 report by Sports Illustrated.

In his testimony in 2003, Mosley admitted he used the blood booster EPO and anabolic steroids he bought from BALCO for $1850. He also admitted he had used the designer drugs referred to as “the cream” and “the clear”, but he insisted publicly and in his testimony that he didn’t know they were either illegal or banned.

Victor Conte, BALCO’s founder, however, said Mosley knew what he was taking.  Conte is being sued for defamation by Mosley.

Conte wrote said in a sworn statement submitted in the defamation case: “Specifically, I explained to Mr. Mosley and Mr. Hudson (Mosley’s trainer at the time) that ‘The Clear’ was an undetectable anabolic steroid and that ‘The Cream’ contained testosterone and epitestosterone. I explained that ‘The Cream’ was primarily to be used as a masking agent. I also explained that EPO increases the production of red blood cells, and therefore Mr. Mosley should take additional dietary supplements that aid in the manufacture of red blood cells, such as iron, vitamin C, vitamin E, folic acid, and vitamin B12. … There is no question that I informed Mr. Mosley that he was taking the three banned performance enhancing drugs.”

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Carl Lewis and Victor Conte are two prominent personalities who have been engaged in running – the former running on the athletic track, the latter running a steroid ring. These two ‘runners’ suspect sprint superstar Usain Bolt’s performance at the recently concluded Beijing Olympics could not only be due to his diet of homemade yams but to steroids and other performance enhancers as well.

From Times Online:

It has been a Jamaican love-in since Usain Bolt bestrode the Olympic Games and won a hat-trick of gold medals, but a voice from the past urged caution as the new sprint sensation was heralded as the king of Kingston. With Bolt in the throes of a national party after his homecoming this week, Carl Lewis said that his achievements are questionable.

The American, 47, who won nine Olympic golds, stopped short of accusing Bolt of doping, but his remarks were the most damning yet from a track insider. In an incendiary interview in Sports Illustrated, Lewis said: “When people ask me about Bolt I say he could be the greatest athlete of all time. But for someone to run 10.03 one year and 9.69 the next, if you don’t question that in a sport that has the reputation it has right now, you’re a fool. Period.”

Conte has recently expressed his misgivings about the impressive performance of athletes coming from the Caribbean countries like Jamaica. Conte’s suspicion is based on the fact that these countries lack or have inadequate testing programs for steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. This is also the basis of Lewis’ skepticism; that unlike the United States, Jamaica has humungous task ahead regarding its anti-doping policy.

“I’m proud of America right now because we have the best random and most comprehensive drug-testing program. Countries like Jamaica do not have a random program, so they can go months without being tested. No one is accusing Bolt, but don’t live by a different rule and expect the same kind of respect. How dare anybody feel that there shouldn’t be scrutiny, especially in our sport?”

Understandably, Lewis’ comments has raised some hackles in Bolt’s country, particularly Herb Elliot, Jamaica team doctor and a member of the IAAF antidoping commission. Elliot stated that the US was circulating “condescending crap” at the Olympics. “They still think we don’t know anything down in Jamaica,” he said.

In 2003, Lewis was one of the athletes whose names appeared in the documents provided by Dr. Wade Exum to Sports Illustrated. Exum was the United States Olympic Committee from 1991 to 2000.

The American athletes, numbering to about 100, failed anti-doping screenings and should have been disqualified from participating in the Olympics but were nevertheless got clearance to compete. The documents said Lewis tested positive three times prior to the 1988 Seoul Olympics for three banned stimulants – pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine. He was banned from said Olympics and was suspended for six months. Lewis denied he consciously used the banned substances, a claim which USOC had believed and prompted them to clear Lewis for future competitions.

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The upcoming intense presidential election is one of the reasons why Victor Conte’s book is not telling anything until 2009. Another intervention is Shane Mosley’s legal offensive against the former BALCO chief.

From the New York Daily News:

Nasty legal warfare has broken out over Victor Conte’s forthcoming tell-all book about his leading role in the world’s biggest steroid conspiracy.

Among the factors is an expensive barrage of defamation litigation launched against Conte by boxer Shane Mosley, one of the athletes whose BALCO doping regimens Conte promises to describe in detail, and Mosley’s threats to sue the book’s publisher.

Conte admits that Mosley’s defamation suits are a “distraction”. According to Conte, he has devoted anecdotal reports on Mosley regarding the boxer’s used of performance-enhancing drugs in Straight Dope. Conte says that Mosley knew “exactly and precisely what he was doing” and had used both “the cream” and “the clear”, both designer drugs then. Mosley, however, claims that he thought the products he was supplied with by BALCO were legal.

Mosley is represented by the notorious New York attorney Judd Burstein.

The most recent of Burstein’s actions against Conte is a motion filed Wednesday asking a U.S. District Court in California to sanction Conte’s defense attorney for submitting what Burstein called an “outrageous and entirely frivolous” motion to recover $75,654 in attorney fees from a defamation suit that Burstein initiated and withdrew.

Burstein rejected Lyons’ overtures. He has promised to sue Skyhorse and its insurers.

In early August, Mosley’s camp filed a $12 million defamation suit in a New York state court while pulling out a similar complaint in a federal court in San Francisco.

Conte’s attorney, James Wagstaffe, had argued that federal claim violated California’s anti-SLAPP statutes. A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation is a lawsuit or a threat of lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by encumbering them with the cost of a legal defense thereby inhibiting their criticism or opposition.

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