Conte vs. Heredia rivalry finds latest chapter with Benavidez vs. Morrell

LAS VEGAS – In a way, they are former partners in crime, given Victor Conte’s former mastermind construction of the doping warehouse BALCO and Angel “Memo” Heredia’s turn as government informant in the aftermath of the scandal that ensnared track and field figures and many others.

More than two decades later, Conte, 74, and Heredia, 49, find each other linked again.

Mexico’s Heredia is the strength and conditioning coach for unbeaten WBC interim light-heavyweight champion David Benavidez, 29-0 (24 KOs), while Conte has packaged protein shakes, “ProNight,” and vitamins for WBA secondary light-heavyweight champion David Morrell, 11-0 (9 KOs), to use alongside training protocols Conte has suggested to Morrell’s co-trainer Bob Santos.

“There’s no direct contact between myself and David Morrell,” Conte emphasized, explaining the supplements from his Bay Area company SNAC accelerate healing and muscle repair during sleep. “Could this conceivably have an effect upon his performance? It could. Is there a way you can measure this? I don’t think so.”

Heredia is more closely involved with Benavidez, who returns from an injury riddled camp before his light-heavyweight victory over former champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk and seeks to give Heredia another head-to-head victory over Conte following Benavidez’s 2023 stoppage of Conte client Demetrius Andrade.

“Victor keeps losing to me, so I don’t know what there is to say,” Heredia told BoxingScene this week, pressing his face closer to a voice recorder. “Victor, I still own you!”

Conte and Heredia have carried on a bitter social-media feud on “X” for several years, with Conte often casting Heredia’s work as shadowy and Heredia criticizing Conte’s policing and turn toward “clean” supplement distribution with his Bay Area company, SNAC.

“Memo has a long history of bragging about being able to circumvent drug testing,” Conte said. “I spent four years from 2000 to 2003 learning how to circumvent drug testing. However, post-BALCO, I became an outspoken anti-doping advocate in 2005. In 2007, I met with Dick Pound, the founding Chairman of WADA. I worked closely with WADA for several years. I also met with USADA and [the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association] and provided consultation to them in regards to how to catch athletes using PEDs. Since 2009, I have worked with 31 world boxing champions and there has not been a single boxer who has tested positive while working with SNAC.”

Conte’s clients have included four-division champion Terence Crawford, women’s heavyweight champion Claressa Shields and former two-division champion Devin Haney.

Conte’s support for the work of VADA has chafed Heredia at times.

In the face of VADA scrutiny, Heredia implies it proves he’s operating legitimately after previously transforming Mexico’s Juan Manuel Marquez from a fighter who couldn’t knock down Manny Pacquiao in three prior fights into a power puncher who dealt Pacquiao one of the most frightening knockouts of this century.

In his third fight with Benavidez, Heredia said the progress has been superb this camp.

“More speed, more power. I’m confident everything’s going to go well. He looks beautiful,” Heredia said. “We do a lot of weight training, a lot of specific training for speed – drills, endurance. Long endurance, short endurance.

“He’s a hard worker. He’s a perfectionist, loves to work hard, disciplined. As a strength-conditioning guy, that’s something I love. He gives 100 per cent. Obviously, these fights are not easy, but he’s ready to go.”

A Conte fighter defeated a Heredia fighter in 2023, when current WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios won a decision over Heredia’s former welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas.

But Conte – often credited as the man who artificially inflated Barry Bonds’ run to become the all-time and single-season home-run king – said neither he nor Heredia deserve an abundance of credit for boxing victories.

“Let’s be very clear that the fighter deserves all of the credit,” Conte said. “The head trainer deserves to be next in line and by the time it gets down to the people that are helping him with some of the small minor details and adjustments and tweaks in his training, that’s a very small contribution.

“So do I consider this some kind of head-to-head competition with ‘Memo?’ The answer’s no.”

While Heredia presides over his fighters’ weightlifting and cardio sessions, Conte takes a more distant position with his boxers.

“I do blood testing and design individual nutrition programs for the fighters. I’m kind of the orchestra conductor, not the lead violinist who plays the solo,” Conte said.

“I’m the one who writes the music and other people play my songs, if that makes sense. We design a training camp schedule, with recovery intervals [that are] so important.”

While Conte’s notorious doping history has prompted Heredia and even recent Haney opponent Ryan Garcia to cast doubt on the pureness of his second chance, Heredia’s connection to positive-tested boxers Lucian Bute [Ostarine, 2016] and Jean Pascal [steroids, 2021] makes Conte skeptical.

“‘Memo’ has a long history of bragging about being able to circumvent drug testing,” Conte said.

Heredia has denied responsibility for the Bute and Pascal positives, and said Conte’s implications are unwarranted.

“He’s been saying that for 12 years, but he’s never turned in one single piece of evidence,” Heredia said. “He accuses me of something that I’ve never done, but he’s never turned in evidence. All my guys get tested – blood and urine. All the time. By VADA. And it’s VADA again for this fight.” 

Conte wouldn’t say Heredia should be restricted from boxing.

“As long as his fighters are doing stringent testing with VADA … do I believe there are ways to circumvent the testing and fly under the radar? I do,” Conte said. “‘Memo’ is very sophisticated at what he does. But as long as there is sophisticated testing in place and his fighter is passing that testing, he’s following the rules.”

Thus, as Benavidez-Morrell occurs, a type of truce exists between the sport’s two most formidable strength and conditioning advisors.

“The fighters that ‘Memo’ works with are successful. The fighters I work with are successful,” Conte said. “The results speak for themselves.

“I don’t want to get into the rumor and innuendo, but I know a lot about the things that ‘Memo’ does. He’s very shrewd with what he’s doing. As long as his fighters aren’t testing positive and they’re successful, more power to him.”