Does Manny Pacquiao know what supplements his trainers are giving him?

Pittsburgh Fight Sports Examiner | Scott Heritage

Amongst the furore that the extra testing Floyd Mayweather and team have demanded for their showdown, Manny Pacquiao is seemingly in the dark about what exactly he is taking with regards to supplements.

It isn't totally uncommon for a fighter or athlete to take whatever they are given without too many questions. After all, Manny's job is to fight, his trainers are the ones who make it their business to know what he can and cannot take.

The problem of athletes in all kinds of sports not keeping a tight reign on what they are taking is much more widespread than boxing. While the extra tests almost certainly won't show Manny to have taken anything untoward, the worry is always there when he isn't in control.

As reported by BoxingScene, Alex Azira said:

“I am the one in charge, I’m the one responsible for what Manny takes. He has no idea what he takes. He is on the same thing that Amir Khan (WBA light welterweight champion), Vanes Martirosyan’s on and I don’t give my guys any steroids. What I give them is all natural and its my own special blend of different things.”

Now obviously, Alex Azira is a respected coach, and the last thing he would do is feed Manny any illegal or otherwise performance enhancing substances. It does raise the question of why Manny doesn't know what he is being given to take on a daily basis however. Many athletes are caught with something in their system that they have either never heard of, or that their trainers told them is legal and safe.

The fact is that often even trainers aren't completely aware of what different supplements contain and what exactly constitutes a banned substance. I'm not talking about steroids necessarily here, which are obvious, but even things such as common cold medicines and headache remedies often contain such a mixture of different chemicals that athletes cannot take them. Coincidentally this is one of the reasons that certain athletes seem to need a lot longer to recover from common ailments than ordinary people. Either they can take medicines which contain banned chemicals and then sit out while the substances clear their systems, or they can take much longer to recover without many of the best treatments.

Some of the more common medicines and otherwise seemingly harmless ways of inadvertently taking a 'performance enhancing substance' include: Ginseng Tea, Diabetes medication, ADHD medication, Asthma treatments, diet supplements and cough and cold medicines such as Actifed, Alka Seltzer, Bayer, Benadryl, Clorafed, Chlor-Trimeton, Comtrex, Dimetapp, Dorcal, Dristine, Drixoral, Efidac, Excedrin, Mytussin, Naldecon, Nyquil, Pediacare, Primatene, Rescon, Robitussin, Sudafed, Theraflu, Triaminic, Tritann, Tussafed, TussOrade, Tylenol and Vicks.

Obviously as well as each of the medications mentioned above there are also various other brand names and generic medicines, not to mention any number of other things whcih contain one or more of the banned chemicals, even if only in tiny amounts. A lot of what athletes are not allowed to take is questionable as to whether it even improves performance anyway. For example marijuana has mild anaesthetic qualities, but given the other effects, could hardly be called performance enhancing for any kind of sport that requires either a weight limit or hand to eye coordination.

Source: Examiner.com