Is Lamont Peterson In Another PED Flap?

UPDATE: The original story has been taken down from RingTV.com, and now the circumstances of the whole affair are even less clear. We aren't sure who, or if anyone, frankly, tested positive. Seems like it is up to the IBF to clarify what has happened; hopefully they will do that in timely fashion, because if indeed Peterson did not test positive, he deserves that news to be put out ASAP.

Is it two strikes and you're out for Lamont Peterson?

The DC based boxer has tested positive for human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), according to Lem Satterfield of RingTV.com. Lem cited a “source familiar with the fighter's post-fight results” of a drug test administered after Peterson beat Kendall Holt (TKO8) in DC on Feb. 22.

Peterson is slated to fight Lucas Matthysse on May 18 in Atlantic City. He'd been through the PED grinder before, as he tested positive before a May 19, 2012 fight with Amir Khan.

Peterson beat IBF 140 pound champion Khan on December 10, 2011, but the rematch was scrapped, ten days before the fight, when he tested dirty in pre-fight testing. Peterson explained that he suffered from low testosterone, and was given testosterone by a doctor, to combat that condition. He admitted that he was taking testosterone before the 2011 scrap, won by Peterson via split decision.

The IBF ruled that their doctor said that the level of testosterone found in Peterson wasn't at a level where it could enhance his performance, for the rematch, or in the first fight; thus, they allowed him to keep his IBF strap.

The Holt fight was an IBF title defense, and Peterson's first fight since the win over Khan.

HCG has been touted as a weight loss aid, and the US Food and Drug Administration put out a release in December 2011 which said that the hormone produced by the human placenta and found in urine of pregnant women is not FDA-approved for weight loss. That release said that HCG is approved to treat female infertility.

HCG is used, apparently, by some people after a steroid cycle, because it stimulates the body to make testosterone, which it does not do while ingesting a cycle of anabolic steroid. It can be used to attend to testicle shrinkage which can accompany steroid use, too.

Satterfield wrote that the head of the DC commission, Sheldon Brown, had told Daryl Peoples, the head of the IBF, which sanctioned Peterson-Holt, that Peterson and Holt had tested negative. Holt's attorney, Pat English, said Satterfield, asked to see testing documentation from Peoples.

So, where do we stand now? Most of us will seek clarity about Brown supposedly telling Peoples that Peterson and Holt both tested negative. And while the Twittersphere is keen to hammer Peterson for getting busted, we don't know if there is any exculpatory info that hasn't bubbled up. Will Peterson, if indeed HCG was flagged, maintain that a physician again prescribed it for him? If yes, did he not make certain that the chemical would not raise a flag with whatever outfit administered testing, which in this case was under the umbrella of WADA, not VADA or USADA.

Readers, what are your thoughts on the matter?

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