Report: WBC investigating Mosley's use of performance-enhancing drugs
"Sugar" Shane Mosley's admission to a grand jury in 2003 that he injected himself with the doping agent EPO as he prepared for a fight against Oscar De La Hoya has provoked an investigation by the World Boxing Council, according to the New York Daily News.
The transcript of the boxer's testimony was part of a BALCO file that was under a protective order before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston decided last month to allow prosecutors to share thousands of documents with Barry Bonds' lawyers.
"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," WBC President Jose Sulaiman told the Daily News. "The WBC rules state that we must have a hearing. This is a matter of serious concern to us."
Mosley has acknowledged using performance-enhancing drugs but has denied knowing the drugs were banned or illegal. His attorney, Judd Burstein, told the newspaper the testimony is consistent with what his client has said publicly.
"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" the WBC's legal counsel Robert Lenhardt told the Daily News.
The WBC's 29-member board of governors will vote on sanctions once evidence has been gathered and can issue disqualifications or severe fines.
Victor Conte, the convicted steroids dealer who founded the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, has possession of the grand jury transcripts and told the Daily News that he will cooperate in the WBC's investigation of Mosley.
Mosley is scheduled to be in court Jan. 15 for a hearing in a defamation case he filed against Conte in New York state court. The suit, which was originally filed in California, claims that Conte said he saw Mosley take EPO during a meeting in which Mosley was told the benefits and risks of performance-enhancing drugs and how to use them.
Mosley, who beat De La Hoya in the 2003 junior middleweight title bout, is scheduled to fight Antonio Margarito on Jan. 24 for the WBA welterweight championship.
