New Mexico Athletic Commission to resume testing for PEDs, starting Aug. 10

The New Mexico Athletic Commission, in the culmination of a process that began two months ago, plans to resume testing for performance-enhancing drugs at the events it oversees.

PED testing apparently fell though the cracks after New Mexico combat sports’ COVID hiatus. It will be re-instituted, commissioners said, at a much-anticipated pro boxing card on Aug. 10 at Tingley Coliseum. A motion to that effect was made, seconded and unanimously approved by the commission at its July meeting on Monday.

No rules changes were necessary, since the NMAC’s existing rules provide for PED testing.

At the NMAC’s May meeting, during a discussion about drug testing, it came to light that PEDs had not been tested for at commission-overseen events since before the pandemic. Commissioners expressed alarm at that realization, and chairman Joe Chavez said he felt it was vital to have a PED-testing plan in place by Aug. 10.

The Aug. 10 card, a co-promotion between international promotional firm Top Rank, Inc., and Albuquerque’s Legacy Promotions, is scheduled to be telecast on ESPN and streamed on ESPN+.

Albuquerque native Angelo Leo (24-1, 11 KOs) is scheduled to challenge Mexico’s Luis Alberto Lopez (30-2, 17 KOs) for the latter’s IBF world featherweight title in the card’s main event.

In a co-main event that has local fight fans in a near-frenzy, Albuquerque rivals Matt Griego-Ortega (14-0, 10 KOs) and Abraham Perez (10-0, five KOs) are scheduled to do battle with the vacant USBA flyweight title at stake.

The commission’s on-site testing process will be conducted as it has been. Main-event fighters and contestants in a title fight will be tested. One-third of the fighters in remaining matches will be tested on a random basis.

This applies to MMA and kickboxing as well as boxing and to amateur cards as well as pro — essentially any event the NMAC oversees.

Duana Pimentel, who supervises drug testing at NMAC events, told the Journal PED testing will cost $220 per test. Promoters, not the commission, pay for testing.

Top Rank lists seven bouts for Aug. 10, with a main event and two title fights, the main event being one of them. The cost for PED testing would be approximately $1,760.

Contestants at NMAC-supervised events also undergo testing for other drugs — cocaine, barbiturates, opioids, etc. — at $45 per test, Pimentel said, administered on the same basis: main event and/or title bout, randomly for one-third of the remaining fighters.

The NMAC also has begun testing for alcohol. The cost is $200 to $300 per event, Pimentel said, depending on how many fights are scheduled.

For the Aug. 10 card, that would be a total of approximately $2,280, an amount of no concern for Top Rank. But that total would have been close to the same for Legacy Promotions’ March 23 card at Expo New Mexico.

For a local promoter with no TV money coming in, would that be a problem?

Aaron Perez, who runs Legacy with business partner Gabriel Carlin, says no.

Perez hadn’t realized Legacy wasn’t paying for PED testing until he reviewed invoices after the commission’s May meeting. He expressed alarm at the time.

“In my mind, fighter safety is always No. 1,” he said.

On Tuesday, in a phone interview, Perez said he was pleased that PED testing will resume and, in future events, would be more than willing to pay for it.

Perez said he would take PED testing a step further and test on the spot any fighter who, based on performance or simply on physical appearance, might be suspect.

“Common sense on this stuff, right?” he said.

Also during Tuesday’s meeting, the commission discussed its intentions to stop testing for marijuana — noting that cannabis is a legal substance in New Mexico. Commissioner Ed Manzanares, a senior athletic director at the University of New Mexico, noted that the NCAA is no longer testing for cannabis.

No formal action on cannabis was taken.