Boxer Shane Mosley is accused of using BALCO designer steroids "the clear'' and "the cream" as part of a doping regimen before
a 2003 fight against Oscar De La Hoya, SI.com reported Friday.
Citing multiple unidentified sources who attended an international anti-doping conference in Colorado Springs, Colo.,
last November, SI.com reported that lead BALCO investigator Jeff Novitzky alleged that Mosley began using those two drugs, as well
as EPO, two months before the light middleweight championship fight
won by Mosley.
A BALCO client, Mosley was subpoenaed in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative investigation and testified before the grand jury in 2003. He has always denied doping and has never tested positive.
"I'm disappointed that this is coming out again, four years
after I've been to the grand jury and gave my truthful testimony," Mosley said Friday in a statement issued by publicist Debbie Caplan. "I even took a lie detector test back then to let everyone know that I wasn't trying to be an unfair fighter."
According to SI.com, evidence seized during the BALCO raids showed Mosley had blood work done to measure his hematocrit level, the volume of red blood cells, at 44. In a calendar with his file, the date of July 26 was circled, accompanied by the word "start" and the letter "e," the Web site reported, and the boxer's level increased to 52.2 by Aug. 8.
"Most men are in the low 40s," Dr. Gary Wadler, a member of the World Anti-Doping Association, told SI.com. "Anything over 50 is considered off the charts."
According to that same calendar, Mosley received a final dose of EPO, which stimulates red blood cell production, on Sept. 8, five days before the fight, SI.com reported.
Victor Conte, the BALCO founder, was released from prison in March 2006 after pleading guilty to selling designer steroids.
"We went out there and I left him [Conte] a check for $1,500 with my name on it, and from then on I never saw him again,''
Mosley said Friday. "But from the beginning I had them contact the Nevada State Athletic Commission to make sure there were no problems. They got the banned substance list and I was told that nothing I was being given was on that list.
"I was upset because I didn't even need to go there," he said, meaning he didn't feel he needed any help for the matchup with De La Hoya. "I already felt that I was the better man and the better fighter. I wondered why I had to get in the middle of this type of scandal. It was kind of crazy and I felt used."
Blood doping has long been an issue in cycling and running, where athletes have boosted red blood cells to increase the
capacity to carry oxygen to the muscles.
Mosley is scheduled to fight Miguel Cotto on Nov. 10 in a WBA welterweight title bout.