By Jim Dower: It’s starting to look bleak for the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin rematch for May 5th, as the fight in jeopardy to be canceled to due to the 2 failed tests for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol.
Last Saturday night, HBO failed to advertise the Canelo-GGG 2 pay-per-view fight in their upcoming calendar of events. It’s unclear whether HBO has been inside information by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who are the ones investigating Canelo for 2 failed tests and they’ve already given him a temporary suspension until April 10.
Canelo tested positive 2 times within three days for the banned substance clenbuterol on the following dates last month: February 17 and February 20. Canelo says his positive tests came from him eating contaminated meat in Mexico. According to Dan Rafael, the levels of Canelo’s clenbuterol in his system was 10 times lower in his second times on the 20th of February than it was on his first positive test on February 17.
“When a fighter is temporarily suspended it’s best to pause on programming promotion and resume when all is settled,” a spokesman from HBO told Dan Rafael in explaining why Canelo-GGG 2 wasn’t listed in the HBO calendar listings of upcoming PPV events last Saturday during their telecast of the Dillian Whyte vs. Lucas Browne fight.
Fanthom Events, the PPV distributer for theaters in the U.S, also isn’t listing the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight in their schedule of upcoming events. Like HBO, Fanthom Evens could be taking a wait and see approach to find out what the Nevada Commission will decide with their investigation of Canelo.
Golovkin will still be fighting on May 5th even if the fight against Canelo is canceled.
“Whatever the commission does, Gennady would still fight May 5 if Canelo is out,” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said to Dan Rafael of ESPN. ”If for some reason it’s not against Canelo, we’ll figure out the best course of action at that time, but he is training to fight May 5.”
If Golovkin can’t fight Canelo on May 5th, then it’s almost guaranteed that it’s going to be a voluntary defense for the Kazakhstan fighter. All the top contenders are fighting around that time, so he won’t be able to face any of the dangerous guys like Daniel Jacobs, Jermall Charlo or Sergiy Derevyanchenko. Jacobs is fighting on April 28 on HBO Boxing against Maciej Sulecki. If Jacobs can cancel that fight, then he would be a possibility as a replacement for Canelo to face GGG in a rematch. Golovkin already beat Jacobs last year in March by a close 12 round decision. That was a fight that some boxing fans felt that Jacobs deserved the win. Certainly Jacobs and his new promoter Eddie Hearn believe that to be the case. Golovkin boxed Jacobs through most of the fight rather than slugging with him. Golovkin realizes now that to beat guys like Jacobs and Canelo, he was to make it a war and look for a knockout like he’s done through most of his career. Golovkin fought Jacobs’ fight by boxing with a boxer, and that’s the reason why the fight was close. GGG didn’t follow the blueprint created by Dmitry Pirog in how to beat Jacobs by pressuring him and loading up on head shots. Golovkin needs to be prepared to go for a knockout against Jacobs if he faces him, because otherwise he might complain that he should have been given the decision afterwards like he did last year in his fight with Golovkin.
It’s interesting that Golovkin could take Canelo’s Cinco de Mayo date on May 5th if he winds up getting suspended by the Nevada Commission. Floyd Mayweather Jr. used to take the Mexican holidays in May and September, but after he retired, Canelo took them. Those are popular dates due to the huge amount of Mexican boxing fans that tune in to watch PPV fights during those holidays.
If his excuse about having tested positive due to having eaten contaminated meat in Mexico, Canelo and his trainers should have been more careful. They’re from Mexico, and they know the risks involved in eating meat. They should have been more careful in picking out the meat. The Nevada Commission needs to put the responsibility for the fighters that use the meat excuse on their shoulders. With that kind of excuse, it can be used by anyone and it puts the Commission in the position where they’re forced to make a judgment call. Golovkin has to trust the Commission they’re able to make the correct decision about Canelo.
“We respect the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s process and will vigorously present Canelo’s case throughout,” Canelo’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions said via the latimes.com. “Over his career, Canelo has tested clean more than 90 times and would never intentionally take a banned substance.”
A lot of fighters test clean through most of their careers, but when they do test positive for a PED, they still end up having to face the consequences for that positive. It’s like with anything. You can do 100 things right, but when you do something wrong, you have people jumping all over you. Canelo has found out the hard way that the boxing public isn’t thinking about all his clean tests for drugs in the past. They’re just thinking about his 2 failed tests for clenbuterol now. Many boxing fans still think that Canelo will eventually be cleared by the Nevada Commission when he meets with them in their full hearing on April 10. The fans think there’s too much money to be made in the Golovkin rematch for them not to clear the Mexican star over this. They point out the Nevada Commission are the ones that gave UFC star Conor McGregor a boxing license last year to fight Floyd Mayweather Jr. last August. McGregor went into the fight with Mayweather with a 0-0 record. It was shocking to a lot of fans that the Nevada gave McGregor a boxing license and then sanctioned his fight against Mayweather, which turned out to be a mismatch as many expected it to be.