By Jim Dower: Saul Canelo Alvarez is doing a good job of training and ignoring the all the fuss being made about his recent positive test for the banned substance clenbuterol. Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) seems oblivious to the investigation going on by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
The 27-year-old Canelo has the look of someone who just knows he’s going to be cleared of all wrong doing by the Nevada Commission. Canelo is training for his May 5th rematch against middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. If this were someone less popular than Canelo, it’s quite possible that fighter would be suspended and he wouldn’t be fighting Golovkin on May 5th, but this Canelo. He’s special.
The way that Canelo is hitting the heavy bag in the video, it seems clear that he’s going to be looking to land body shots with everything he has. The problem with the way Canelo is hitting the bag is he’s taking too long to load up with the perfect shot, and he’s not going to be able to do that against Gennady on May 5th – if there is a fight on that date. If Canelo tries to load up with a big shot the way he’s doing in his training video, Golovkin is going to clock him with a shot and knock him out.
Canelo’s pretty good at moving his head to avoid incoming shots, so maybe he’ll be able to get out of the way of GGG’s shots. Canelo is going to have to be a little more offensive minded against Triple G in the rematch. Canelo spent so much time trying to get out of the way of Gennady’s shots, and this kept him from doing enough on offense to win a clear decision. That’s the problem that Canelo had in the fight. His attention was on his defense and not on his offense.
Canelo is looking very big right now. It’s unclear whether he’s going to drop some weight in the next two months, because right now he’s looking a lot like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in size. Canelo’s weight looks like easily like it’s in the 190+ region. Canelo’s receding hairline that is making his head look bigger, but he doesn’t look the same Canelo. He must be still growing at 27. That weight is going to have to come down some for him to have a chance against Golovkin. I don’t know if Canelo has been lifting weights or eating like crazy, but he looks even bigger than he was in the previous fight with Golovkin last September.
As bad as Canelo’s stamina problems were in that fight, you’d think that he would have dropped some size. Canelo is going to need to be as light as possible for him to have a chance of handling the fast pace that Golovkin is going to be setting. You know Golovkin is going to be pressing Canelo the whole time, because he knows he has to work hi hard to tire him out to the victory. The judges aren’t going to give Golovkin a decision win by him simply doing what Floyd Mayweather Jr. did. It worked for Mayweather because he’s popular, but it didn’t work for Golovkin. He has to put some pressure on Canelo and try and hurt him bad, because he’s probably not going to be given much credit for boxing.
Canelo’s trainers Chepo and Eddy Reynoso should have had him start training camp light as possible for the Golovkin rematch, because he’s going to need to be as light as possible to get the stamina needed to fight at the fast pace.
Golovkin is sticking it out with the fight despite Canelo’s positive drug test for clenbuterol. Golovkin would be perfectly justified to call the fight off due to Canelo’s positive test. If the Nevada Commission isn’t going to suspend Canelo for his positive test, Golovkin should be thinking about pulling off the fight. If nothing else, if Golovkin pulls out of the fight, the match could then be scheduled for September. If Canelo tested during all those months for PEDs, then Golovkin would know for sure that he’s not coming into the fight with an advantage over him. Canelo has already got enough advantages as it is.
Here are Canelo’s advantages over GGG:
• Bigger purse
• Venue
• Gets name mentioned first in promotion
• Youth
• Size
• Speed
• Crowd
With all the advantages that Canelo has going for him, it would be overkill if he intentionally used clenbuterol in the weeks/months before he started training camp for the rematch with Golovkin. Most fighters would be more than happy to have all the advantages that Canelo has over Golovkin. They wouldn’t feel they needed to tilt things in their favor even more. That’s why one has to hope that Canelo didn’t intentionally use clenbuterol, because that would be a sign of insecurity on his part.
