Boxing

Manny Pacquiao’s PED Drug Test Results Revealed Before Mario Barrios Fight

Manny Pacquiaos pre-fight drug test results have been made public in advance of his July 19 fight.
Grant Young|
Manny Pacquiao, a Filipino boxer seen during a press conference on July 21, 2023.
Manny Pacquiao, a Filipino boxer seen during a press conference on July 21, 2023. | IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

The boxing community is now 33 days away from July 19, when the 46-year-old Filipino legend Manny Pacquiao will make his return to the ring for the first time in about four years to challenge Mario Barrios for the WBC welterweight belt.

Given that he's one of the most recognizable stars in the sport, there's always a lot of hype around when Pacquiao is about to box. And since fans have been deprived of seeing him fight for so long, there's a clear appetite for this July 19 showdown. Of course, there's also some clear concern, considering Pacquiao's advanced age, the fact that he didn't look great in his most recent fights, and the fact that he's fighting one of the best boxers in his weight class.

And since the odds don't necessarily seem to be in Pacquiao's favor heading in to this bout against Barrios, one would assume he's going to take advantage of any opportunity to secure the upper hand.

Pacquiao has never failed a drug test, nor been widely suspected of using Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs) throughout his esteemed career. However, given that he has been out of the sport for so long and he has several physical disadvantages in this upcoming fight, there was always going to be some interest around his drug tests.

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And on June 15, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman made an Instagram post that discussed Pacquiao's recent drug test results.

"Just received notification from @vada_testing with negative for @mannypacquiao #cleanboxingprogram has been very busy lately with many tests all over the world," Sulaiman's post wrote.

In other words, Pacquiao's drug test came up clean.

A fighter's drug test results are rarely made public this early before a fight, as it's more often that the results come out a day or two after the fight takes place. But perhaps Sulaiman and the WBC wanted to quell any speculation about Pacquiao's status well in advance of him facing Barrios.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.