Shane Mosley-Victor Conte dispute heats up again
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A settlement conference in New York on Thursday settled nothing between Pomona’s world welterweight champion boxer Shane Mosley and his former performance-enhancing drugs supplier, Victor Conte.
Mosley is suing Conte, arguing that the founder of the notorious Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative tricked him by instructing him to use designer steroids ‘the cream’ and ‘the clear’ and the energy-boosting substance EPO. Mosley acknowledges taking the substances in advance of his 2003 mega-fight versus Oscar De La Hoya (Mosley won by decision) but denies knowing the substances were steroids and banned in Olympic sports.
Conte says Mosley knew exactly what he was taking: dangerous performance-enhancing substances that were used to resurrect his career after losses to Vernon Forrest.
So, after Thursday’s hearing disintegrated into a heated exchange between the Conte camp and Mosley’s New York attorney, Judd Burstein, Conte went to his computer and posted portions of Mosley’s videotaped deposition onto YouTube, portions in which he acknowledges using EPO.
‘The world of boxing deserves to know the truth,’ Conte told The Times on Thursday as Mosley, 38, continues training in Big Bear for his May 1 pay-per-view welterweight bout against unbeaten Floyd Mayweather Jr. ‘He knew he was taking EPO. He knew the benefits of enhancing his performance, he knew the dangers and risks, and he knew we were factoring in a taper time of five days before his drug test so it’d clear his system.
‘He knew it was a banned substance and illegal.’
The dispute was first reported by the New York Daily News.
Reached by telephone Thursday, Burstein said ‘the video is another example of Victor Conte’s dishonesty, because it’s plainly an edited portion of the entire deposition.’
Burstein said he’s planning to publicly release the entire videotaped deposition later. He e-mailed The Times a letter in which he advises Nevada State Athletic Commission Executive Director Keith Kizer that Mosley has remained true to his word that he believed he was taking products and injections with this assurance from Conte: ‘I promise you there’s nothing -- you won’t have a bad drug test.’
‘Shane did not know [the products were steroids or banned substances],’ Burstein told The Times. ‘Conte assured him it was all appropriate.’
In a later e-mail to The Times, Burstein wrote:
In yet another example of Victor Conte’s complete dishonesty, he posted an edited portion of Shane’s deposition which left out Shane’s explicit testimony that Victor Conte assured Shane that EPO was not a banned substance or otherwise illegal. I look forward to cross-examining him on it at trial. In contrast to Conte’s dirty tricks, we are going to make all of Shane’s deposition, as well as Mr. Conte’s deposition, available on YouTube in the next day or so. People should ask: why was Conte afraid to post the whole deposition? The answer will be obvious, as it shows that Shane is entirely credible. In contrast, Conte’s deposition shows him to be just what he is: a convicted felon who would not know the truth if it slapped him in his face. There is nothing new about the story; all that Shane was saying is the same thing he said in 2003 – a claim that was supported by a lie-detector test. We are also hereby making available a submission that we made to the Nevada Athletic Commission which shows (a) how consistent Shane has been on all of these issues, and (b) that Victor Conte is a stone-cold liar.
-- Lance Pugmire
