Manny Pacquiao received a surprise visit from drug testers prior to his Fight of the Century with Floyd Mayweather.
Pacquiao was approached unannounced by an anti-doping examiner at the house he is renting in Los Angeles where he is preparing to face Mayweather in Las Vegas on May 2.
Both fighters can expect to be tested under the US Anti-Doping Association programme to which they have both signed up.
Pacquiao was visited only four days after the packed red-carpet media event in LA which formally launched the build up to the $350million richest fight of all time.
The inspector called at the house, where Pacquiao was relaxing with members of his team between work-outs with master trainer Freddie Roach at the fabled Wild Card Gym
The PacMan readily complied with tests for both blood – a process about which he had previously expressed his dislike – and urine.
‘No problem,’ he told the medic, with a smile.
Earlier, his promoter Bob Arum had made it clear that Pacquiao had issued a $5m challenge to Mayweather with regard to the testing, and offered to surrender that amount should he fail the examination.
Arum explained: ‘Manny proposed that if either of them did not pass a test, that man should pay the other $5m.
‘Floyd’s team declined. Not because anybody here is afraid of the outcome but because they realised they could legally get a lot more if it happened.
‘Fine with Manny. If Floyd fails we will be looking for much more compensation than $5m.’
Pacquiao has already been paid damages – reportedly in seven figures – after taking legal action for remarks made by members of the Mayweather team, when they began demanding drugs-testing, which inferred that he might have used performance enhancing drugs in the past.
Under the US procedures, which comply with the World Anti-Doping Agency standards applied for the Olympics, both boxers must submit to random testing in the weeks leading up to the fight and to another immediately after the event.
Pacquiao has had to overcome an element of paranoia that a loss of blood prior to fights might weaken him in the ring.
But he is so cool about testing now that he allowed video-taping of Sunday’s test by a Philippines camera crew which is filming virtually his every move between now and fight night in the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Mayweather has campaigned vociferously in the last two years for the implementation of random blood testing for all fights.
However, with a split purse of up to $180m for Mayweather and $120m for Pacquiao at stake, it seems inconceivable that either man would even remotely risk detection.