In an interview done by Dan Hernandez, Dr. George Del Junco relates his piece of the Shane Mosley steroid scandal and how he had seen the boxer slowly become the man he is now.
Dr. George Del Junco, commonly known as Dr. George in the boxing world, spent most of his 59 years working with boxers and giving advice to the athletes. He has worked with the likes of Oscar De La Hoya, Chicanito Hernandez, Paul Gonzalez and Shane Mosley to name a few. While the interview was generally focused on Chicanito Hernandez and his battle with cancer, the conversation sidetracked to the issue Shane Mosley is facing right now— the use of anabolic steroids during his battle with Oscar De La Hoya.
Dr. George has known Mosley since the boxer was 8 years old and has worked with him for about 23 years. Mosley, the doctor, and Jack (Shane’s father) were a tight-knit bunch until 1997, a bit before the second battle against De La Hoya. According to Dr. George, Mosley was mostly under a new conditioning coach brought in by the boxer’s wife. Most of the changes started when Mosley’s new manager, his wife Jin, started calling all the shots. When Dr. George reported to camp, he noticed right away that Mosley increased in bulk more than humanly possible. From the doctor’s narration:
From Ringside Report:
I said, “Shane, what are you doing, you’ve gotten so big.”
In the back of my mind, I had a feeling it was steroids. I have been around football players and weight lifters, all my life, so I knew right away what had happened, but I questioned him anyway. Mosley responded, “I’ve been lifting weights.” He then puffed up and showed me his muscles in his chest and I said, “Hey, don’t lie to me, that’s not from weights. You might have been doing some weights, but you’ve been shooting steroids.” Right away he went from the sweet mild-mannered Shane Mosley, I had known, to a very aggressive, very uncharacteristic person, using foul language, which he never did before, and told me that, “It was none of my business, you didn’t do it so don’t worry about it.” I told him in reply that, “People have a notion that people by your side are the one’s doing things with you. And since I’ve been with you all these years, anyone might think that I’ve been giving you steroids instead of the B12 that I’ve been giving you for the last 12 years.” Shane responded with, “I told you, you didn’t do it, it has nothing to do with you, it’s none of your business. Don’t get involved.” And I walked away.
It didn’t end there though. Dr. George had noticed that Mosley became uncharacteristically aggressive and had terrible mood swings. He argued with his father, with the team and with everyone else around him. From what Dr. George had observed, he affirmed that Mosley had indeed taken steroids. According to the doctor, Mosley should be man enough to admit that he had used performance enhancing drugs instead of making lame excuses. Dr. George is upset with the way Shane Mosley had treated boxing after everything that the sport had done for him.
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