Dr. Goodman Kept VADA Off the Ropes in 2012

Published

12 years ago

September 19, 2013

The Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA), an independent nonprofit organization founded in 2011 to offer and promote effective anti-doping programs in boxing and mixed martial arts, finished the 2012 tax year, its first complete year of operations, with a 12% budget deficit. In order to cover the deficit, VADA Founder and President, Dr. Margaret Goodman, provided a personal loan of $25,107 to the nonprofit organization.

“Our board/officers, including myself, stand behind a clean sport,” Goodman told me. “Administrative and other costs can add up. Sometimes you have to put your money where your mouth is if you believe in clean sport.”

Adrian Zapata, a former nonprofit partnership banking officer for BBVA Compass Bank, told me losses were commonplace for any first year business, especially a nonprofit.

“Yes, it can be common for a nonprofit to lose that amount of money, but I would highly suggest looking to see where that money is going and how it’s being spent.”

Information obtained through the Freedom of Information Act show VADA’s expenses were almost $195k in 2012, $170k of which was dedicated to paying professional fees and independent contractors. It appears the bulk of these costs, if not all, were related to specimen collection and lab expenses, though Goodman said there may have also been a small subset related to accounting and legal services.

The remainder of the total, around $25k, was earmarked for other expenses related to overhead costs. Items noted in this category include $11.5k for website costs, almost $8k for insurance and $375 for public relations.

VADA’s 2012 highlights included the testing of its first batch of fighters, welterweights Andre Berto and Victor Ortiz, as well as eventual 2012 BWAA Fighter of the Year, Nonito Donaire (pictured above, holding BWAA Fighter of the Year award for 2012), signing up for year-round drug testing with the organization. Donaire is the first professional boxer to undergo advanced year-round random drug testing.

VADA proved effective from the start. Two out of the first six fighters put through a VADA program, Andre Berto and Lamont Peterson, tested positive for banned substances. Each bout was subsequently cancelled.

The year also featured opportunities for VADA to improve.

In the case of Lamont Peterson, VADA was forced to rethink its Results Management policy. The inaugural policy only notified relative athletic commissions after both samples, ‘A’ and ‘B’, tested positive for a banned substance. Critics of the policy, including the NSAC’s Keith Kizer, argued VADA’s approach was unfair to everyone involved, including Peterson’s opponent, Amir Khan, as well as fans and promoters.

“The person who really got hurt was Amir Khan, who passed all the tests,” Kizer recently told Brent Brookhouse. “The fight got cancelled, and the fans, some of which had non-refundable airline tickets, got really hurt by all this. And if they had told us even a week earlier, Golden Boy would have had time to find a replacement for Peterson, and Khan and his fans would have been satisfied, but unfortunately, they hid the results from us.”

VADA has since updated the policy.

“Regarding the unfortunate Lamont Peterson situation, I agree that it would have been preferable had VADA been able to report the ‘A’ results to the commission…,” Goodman told Brookhouse. “However, after the fiasco that occurred, VADA analyzed the real-world application of its policy and changed the policy. Now, the athletes must agree that the relevant commission will be notified of all results, including the preliminary ‘A’ results, as a condition of entry to the program. Nobody — including the athletes or promoters — is able to contract around this policy of reporting all results to the commission. Since then, everything has run much more smoothly.”

By the end of 2012, VADA had established itself one of the premier providers of advanced PED testing programs in the world of combat sports, alongside the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). While USADA operates on a much larger scale and across multiple sports (USADA is recognized by the U.S. Congress as the official anti-doping agency for US Olympic, Pan American and Paralympic sports), VADA specializes exclusively in providing educational resources and testing programs for athletes competing in professional combat sports.

VADA does not have employees, and none of its board members, including Goodman, receive any form of compensation for their work. That means no annual salaries or bonuses, discretionary or otherwise. In comparison, USADA CEO Travis Tygart took home well over $350k in income and other compensation in 2011 alone.

According to its 2011 application for recognition as a nonprofit organization with the IRS, the volunteer status of Goodman and her cohorts has been planned from the very beginning. One might say Goodman and company are putting the ‘V’ in VADA.

Goodman said there are no current plans for that to change, and that she couldn’t foresee an instance where it would change years from now either.

Goodman founded VADA on September 29, 2011 by submitting nonprofit articles of incorporation papers to the secretary of state’s office in Nevada. Beginning with just $5k in cash assets, the fledgling organization collected almost $28k in revenue during the three remaining months of the year and finished with net assets totaling just under $2.5k after expenses.

So how is 2013 looking so far?

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” said Goodman. “We don’t request any more funding from athletes than is necessary to run the program.”

Goodman said the current setup was to have athletes find sponsorships or provide payment themselves.

“Sometimes it has been the promoter, sometimes the athlete or his team, sometimes from unrelated donors,” she said. “The first year or so, we wanted to demonstrate to commissions that unannounced random, stringent PED testing could work.”

Goodman said it was impossible to know whether she’d find herself in the position again of needing to provide another personal loan to VADA. She also said the possibility wouldn’t stop VADA from their mission, which includes offering sponsorships to program participants when funding is available.

“In combat sports, the fighters deserve more in terms of protecting their health. It can be expensive, but it’s the right thing to do.”

Goodman is a practicing neurologist in Las Vegas. Her work in boxing does not appear to be driven by the bottom line of an accounting ledger. The former NSAC medical advisory board chairman said her volunteer work to move boxing and MMA towards safer standards didn’t start with VADA. She spent 6 years with the NSAC in a role where she was responsible for reviewing medical tests and dealing with other medical issues, and she did it for free, working as many as 20 hours a week.

“Bottom line, donating my efforts to helping fighters is not a new thing for me. And it is not just me. Many others — like all those involved with the Association of Ring Physicians — do the same. I have respect for the fighters and believe in protecting their health through the promotion of sophisticated and thorough PED testing programs.”

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Kelsey McCarson

TSS Salutes Thomas Hauser and his Bernie Award Cohorts

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

TSS Press

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The Boxing Writers Association of America has announced the winners of its annual Bernie Awards competition. The awards, named in honor of former five-time BWAA president and frequent TSS contributor Bernard Fernandez, recognize outstanding writing in six categories as represented by stories published the previous year.

Over the years, this venerable website has produced a host of Bernie Award winners. In 2024, Thomas Hauser kept the tradition alive. A story by Hauser that appeared in these pages finished first in the category “Boxing News Story.” Titled “Ryan Garcia and the New York State Athletic Commission,” the story was published on June 23. You can read it HERE.

Hauser also finished first in the category of “Investigative Reporting” for “The Death of Ardi Ndembo,” a story that ran in the (London) Guardian. (Note: Hauser has owned this category. This is his 11^th first place finish for “Investigative Reporting”.)

Thomas Hauser, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame with the class of 2019, was honored at last year’s BWAA awards dinner with the A.J. Leibling Award for Outstanding Boxing Writing. The list of previous winners includes such noted authors as W.C. Heinz, Budd Schulberg, Pete Hamill, and George Plimpton, to name just a few.

The Leibling Award is now issued intermittently. The most recent honorees prior to Hauser were Joyce Carol Oates (2015) and Randy Roberts (2019).

Roberts, a Distinguished Professor of History at Purdue University, was tabbed to write the Hauser/Leibling Award story for the glossy magazine for BWAA members published in conjunction with the organization’s annual banquet. Regarding Hauser’s most well-known book, his Muhammad Ali biography, Roberts wrote, “It is nearly impossible to overestimate the importance of the book to our understanding of Ali and his times.” An earlier book by Hauser, “The Black Lights: Inside the World of Professional Boxing,” garnered this accolade: “Anyone who wants to understand boxing today should begin by reading ‘The Black Lights’.”

A panel of six judges determined the Bernie Award winners for stories published in 2024. The stories they evaluated were stripped of their bylines and other identifying marks including the publication or website for which the story was written.

Other winners:

Boxing Event Coverage: Tris Dixon

Boxing Column: Kieran Mulvaney

Boxing Feature (Over 1,500 Words): Lance Pugmire

Boxing Feature (Under 1,500 Words): Chris Mannix

The Dixon, Mulvaney, and Pugmire stories appeared in Boxing Scene; the Mannix story in Sports Illustrated.

The Bernie Award recipients will be honored at the forthcoming BWAA dinner on April 30 at the Edison Ballroom in the heart of Times Square. (For more information, visit the BWAA website). Two days after the dinner, an historic boxing tripleheader will be held in Times Square, the logistics of which should be quite interesting. Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, and Teofimo Lopez share top billing.

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Mekhrubon Sanginov, whose Heroism Nearly Proved Fatal, Returns on Saturday

Published

3 days ago

April 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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To say that Mekhrubon Sanginov is excited to resume his boxing career would be a great understatement. Sanginov, ranked #9 by the WBA at 154 pounds before his hiatus, last fought on July 8, 2022.

He was in great form before his extended leave, having scored four straight fast knockouts, advancing his record to 13-0-1. Had he remained in Las Vegas, where he had settled after his fifth pro fight, his career may have continued on an upward trajectory, but a trip to his hometown of Dushanbe, Tajikistan, turned everything haywire. A run-in with a knife-wielding bully nearly cost him his life, stalling his career for nearly three full years.

Sanginov was exiting a restaurant in Dushanbe when he saw a man, plainly intoxicated, harassing another man, an innocent bystander. Mekhrubon intervened and was stabbed several times with a long knife. One of the puncture wounds came perilously close to puncturing his heart.

“After he stabbed me, I ran after him and hit him and caught him to hold for the police,” recollects Sanginov. “There was a lot of confusion when the police arrived. At first, the police were not certain what had happened.

“By the time I got to the hospital, I had lost two liters of blood, or so I was told. After I was patched up, one of the surgeons said to me, ‘Give thanks to God because he gave you a second life.’ It is like I was born a second time.”

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It could have happened in any city,” he adds. (A story about the incident on another boxing site elicited this comment from a reader: “Good man right there. World would be a better place if more folk were willing to step up when it counts.”)

Sanginov first laced on a pair of gloves at age 10 and was purportedly 105-14 as an amateur. Growing up, the boxer he most admired was Roberto Duran. “Muhammad Ali will always be the greatest and [Marvin] Hagler was great too, but Duran was always my favorite,” he says.

During his absence from the ring, Sanginov married a girl from Tajikistan and became a father. His son Makhmud was born in Las Vegas and has dual citizenship. “Ideally,” he says, “I would like to have three more children. Two more boys and the last one a daughter.”

He also put on a great deal of weight. When he returned to the gym, his trainer Bones Adams was looking at a cruiserweight. But gradually the weight came off – “I had to give up one of my hobbies; I love to eat,” he says – and he will be resuming his career at 154. “Although I am the same weight as before, I feel stronger now. Before I was more of a boy, now I am a full-grown man,” says Sanginov who turned 29 in February.

He has a lot of rust to shed. Because of all those early knockouts, he has answered the bell for only eight rounds in the last four years. Concordantly, his comeback fight on Saturday could be described as a soft re-awakening. Sanginov’s opponent Mahonri Montes, an 18-year pro from Mexico, has a decent record (36-10-2, 25 KOs) but has been relatively inactive and is only 1-3-1 in his last five. Their match at Thunder Studios in Long Beach, California, is slated for eight rounds.

On May 10, Ardreal Holmes (17-0) faces Erickson Lubin (26-2) on a ProBox card in Kissimmee, Florida. It’s an IBF super welterweight title eliminator, meaning that the winner (in theory) will proceed directly to a world title fight.

Sanginov will be watching closely. He and Holmes were scheduled to meet in March of 2022 in the main event of a ShoBox card on Showtime. That match fell out when Sanginov suffered an ankle injury in sparring.

If not for a twist of fate, that may have been Mekhrubon Sanginov in that IBF eliminator, rather than Ardreal Holmes. We will never know, but one thing we do know is that Mekhrubon’s world title aspirations were too strong to be ruined by a knife-wielding bully.

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Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis Wins Welterweight Showdown in Atlantic City

Published

6 days ago

April 12, 2025

David A. Avila

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In the showdown between undefeated welterweight champions Jaron “Boots Ennis walked away with the victory by technical knockout over Eamantis Stanionis and the WBA and IBF titles on Saturday.

No doubt. Ennis was the superior fighter.

“He’s a great fighter. He’s a good guy,” said Ennis.

Philadelphia’s Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) faced Lithuania’s Stanionis (15-1, 10 KOs) at demonstrated an overpowering southpaw and orthodox attack in front of a sold-out crowd at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

It might have been confusing but whether he was in a southpaw stance or not Ennis busted the body with power shots and jabbed away in a withering pace in the first two rounds.

Stanionis looked surprised when his counter shots seemed impotent.

In the third round the Lithuanian fighter who trains at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, began using a rocket jab to gain some semblance of control. Then he launched lead rights to the jaw of Ennis. Though Stanionis connected solidly, the Philly fighter was still standing and seemingly unfazed by the blows.

That was a bad sign for Stanionis.

Ennis returned to his lightning jabs and blows to the body and Stanionis continued his marauding style like a Sherman Tank looking to eventually run over his foe. He just couldn’t muster enough firepower.

In the fifth round Stanionis opened up with a powerful body attack and seemed to have Ennis in retreat. But the Philadelphia fighter opened up with a speedy combination that ended with blood dripping from the nose of Stanionis.

It was not looking optimistic for the Lithuanian fighter who had never lost.

Stanionis opened up the sixth round with a three-punch combination and Ennis met him with a combination of his own. Stanionis was suddenly in retreat and Ennis chased him like a leopard pouncing on prey. A lightning five-punch combination that included four consecutive uppercuts delivered Stanionis to the floor for the count. He got up and survived the rest of the round.

After returning shakily to his corner, the trainer whispered to him and then told the referee that they had surrendered.

Ennis jumped in happiness and now holds the WBA and IBF welterweight titles.

“I felt like I was getting in my groove. I had a dream I got a stoppage just like this,” said Ennis.

Stanionis looked like he could continue, but perhaps it was a wise move by his trainer. The Lithuanian fighter’s wife is expecting their first child at any moment.

Meanwhile, Ennis finally proved the expectations of greatness by experts. It was a thorough display of superiority over a very good champion.

“The biggest part was being myself and having a live body in front of me,” said Ennis. “I’m just getting started.”

Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn was jubilant over the performance of the Philadelphia fighter.

“What a wonderful humble man. This is one of the finest fighters today. By far the best fighter in the division,” said Hearn. “You are witnessing true greatness.”

Other Bouts

Former featherweight world champion Raymond Ford (17-1-1, 8 KOs) showed that moving up in weight would not be a problem even against the rugged and taller Thomas Mattice (22-5-1, 17 KOs) in winning by a convincing unanimous decision.

The quicksilver southpaw Ford ravaged Mattice in the first round then basically cruised the remaining nine rounds like a jackhammer set on automatic. Four-punch combinations pummeled Mattice but never put him down.

“He was a smart veteran. He could take a hit,” said Ford.

Still, there was no doubt on who won the super featherweight contest. After 10 rounds all three judges gave Ford every round and scored it 100-90 for the New Jersey fighter who formerly held the WBA featherweight title which was wrested from him by Nick Ball.

Shakhram Giyasov (17-0, 10 KOs) made good on a promise to his departed daughter by knocking out Argentina’s Franco Ocampo (17-3, 8 KOs) in their welterweight battle.

Giyasov floored Ocampo in the first round with an overhand right but the Argentine fighter was able to recover and fight on for several more rounds.

In the fourth frame, Giyasov launched a lead right to the liver and collapsed Ocampo with the body shot for the count of 10 at 1:57 of the fourth round.

“I had a very hard camp because I lost my daughter,” Giyasov explained. “I promised I would be world champion.”

In his second pro fight Omari Jones (2-0) needed only seconds to disable William Jackson (13-6-2) with a counter right to the body for a knockout win. The former Olympic medalist was looking for rounds but reacted to his opponent’s actions.

“He was a veteran he came out strong,” said Jones who won a bronze medal in the 2024 Paris Olympics. “But I just stayed tight and I looked for the shot and I landed it.”

After a feint, Jackson attacked and was countered by a right to the rib cage and down he went for the count at 1:40 of the first round in the welterweight contest.

Photo credit: Matchroom

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