By Allan Fox: It appears there’s nothing that Saul Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs) can say that’ll convince his opponent Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) that he didn’t intentionally cheat by taking clenbuterol last February.
On Tuesday, Golovkin told the media that Canelo’s positive drug test for clenbuterol wasn’t because he ate contaminated meat in Mexico. He thinks it’s entirely from him using the drug to gain an edge against him in their rematch on May 5 at 8:00 p.m. at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golovkin might be hurting himself by talking so much about his suspicions about why Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol. If fans in boxing think Canelo is dirty, then they’ll likely be less interested in paying to see the rematch on HBO pay-per-view. There’s good publicity about a fight and then there’s bad publicity. Talking about drugs is the bad kind of publicity, but GGG is obviously upset and he feels that Canleo used the drug so it could help him enough for him to win the fight, which is cheating. Golovkin thinks Canelo used a performance enhancing drug for the first fight as well, although we’re only now finding out about Golovkin’s thoughts.
“Again with Mexican meat? Come on,” Golovkin said via ESPN. “I told you, it’s not Mexican meat. This is Canelo. This is his team. This is his promotion. Canelo is cheating. They’re using these drugs, and everybody is just trying to pretend it’s not happening.”
Canelo has partial cover with his explanation for his positive test for clenbuterol, as this is a problem in his country in Mexico for athletes that make the mistake of eating beef that hasn’t been tested. Clenbuterol is used by the owners of cattle to help increase the lean muscle of their animals. It helps take away fat and increase the lean muscle. There’s not much Golovkin can do because clenbuterol is a problem that is known about. It’s just unfortunate that Canelo still chose to eat beef and put himself at risk. It’s unclear whether he’s always eaten the Mexican beef and been lucky all this time. If that’s what happened, then Canelo’s luck ran out this year with his positive test for clenbuterol.
Canelo looked big and muscular for his fight with Golovkin on September 16 last year in Las Vegas. Canelo put in some hard work in training camp for the fight last September, and he didn’t look like the old Canelo. His body had a different look to it, and seemed more powerful than before.
What Canelo didn’t show in the first fight with Triple G was good endurance. Canelo has never had great conditioning, but last September, he looked limited dramatically in that department. Had Canelo been able to fight hard for a full three minutes of each round, he would have won a clear decision. He was the better fighter when he was able to fight hard in the first minute of each round.
The judges that scored the contest a 12 round draw were so impressed with Canelo’s work in the first minute of each round, they gave him a draw. If Canelo can fix his stamina problem for the rematch, then he has a very good chance of winning the fight. At this this point in training camp for the rematch, Canelo looks heavy and he appears to be over 200 pounds. I’ve never seen Canelo this heavy before one of his fights. He looks just like Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. when he starts his training camp.
Canelo is going to have to lose a lot of weight in training camp for him to get down to 160. What Canelo will likely do is melt down from 200 to 180 to 185lbs, and then dehydrate to get down to 160 to make weight. Canelo doesn’t have his fight night weight revealed by HBO. One reason why Canelo gasses out so quickly in his fights is the weight he’s forced to take off to make weight each time.
”I not change a lot because I won first fight,” Golovkin said to Astorias. ”I won first fight, because he never ran before. Last fight, he ran like Usain Bolt. Probably, he needs to change. We have big plan for second fight. Next week, we’re going to start sparring,” Golovkin said.
Golovkin feels that Canelo fan from him last September, and was given a draw that he didn’t rate by the judges in their fight at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Golovkin sounds very jaded and bitter from his experience in the first fight. It’s too bad he couldn’t go in another direction and fight someone else. Golovkin sounds like he’s soured from the experience that he went through against Canelo with one judge giving it to the Golden Boy star by a 10 rounds to 2 score, and another judge scoring it 114-114. That score wasn’t so bad from that judge except for the fact that he gave Canelo round 7. Golovkin didn’t like that at all.
Canelo didn’t like the draw either. He felt that he had done enough to win 9 rounds to 3. That score is very close to the judge Adalaide Byrd’s score of 118-110 in favor of Canelo. It’s not the score that most boxing fans had the fight. Most of them had GGG winning by 2 to 4 rounds. Canelo wants to knockout Golovkin in the rematch so that there’s no possibility of the judges taking away another one of his wins. The size that Canelo has packed on since his first fight will help him accomplish his goal of knocking GGG out if he has the gas tank to get the job done.
If Canelo is going to knockout Golovkin, he’ll need to put together at least 10 to 15 hard shots thrown consecutively. Throwing to or three shots, and then moving away from Golovkin won’t get the job done in knocking him out. Canelo has to stand attack Golovkin for him to knock him out. The first fight on September 16 was not a really thrilling fight that many thought it would be.
Canelo perched himself against the ropes, and took a defensive posture. He would move to the left when the head became too much for him, but he mostly looked to land single counter shots and that was it. In the last three rounds, Canelo’s trainers let him know that he was training, so he attacked a little bit more in each round. But Canelo still didn’t attack Golovkin the way it was portrayed afterwards by some people in the boxing media. Canelo fought the first half of each round from the 10th through 12th.
“This is not his first day in boxing. He proves he gets benefits from everyone and he can get away with it. Check him on a lie detector and then we can find out everything,” Golovkin said of Canelo. “I think it is silly to blame the meat because an athlete at this level should not be caught on the meat. I eat Mexican food all the time and I’ve never had that problem,” Golovkin said to ESPN.com.
Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 still has a chance of being cancelled if the Nevada State Athletic Commission suspends Canelo. That isn’t too likely though. It doesn’t seem likely. Canelo is important for Vegas. He brings in the boxing fans to his fights, and he helps the city. If this were a situation where an outside governing body was investigating Canelo, you can argue that they might be more willing to suspend him if they felt his excuse of having eaten contaminated wasn’t a good enough explanation for his positive test. With the Nevada Commission investigating Canelo, it seems to me very unlikely they would suspend him. It would hurt their state if Canelo doesn’t fight GGG on May 5th. That’s money that won’t go to Las Vegas if the fight doesn’t happen on that date. Further, if Canelo gets angry at the Nevada Commission for them potentially suspending him, he could take his future fights elsewhere to Texas. That’s why it’s hard to imagine the Nevada Commission banning Canelo for his positive test for clenbuterol. There’s too much to lose if Canelo gets angry and decides he doesn’t want to fight in Nevada anymore.
The likely outcome of the Commission’s investigation will be more drug testing for Canelo, and the boxing public being told of each of his negative tests, so they’ll feel more comfortable about paying to see the rematch on May 5th on HBO PPV.
Golovkin says if the Commission fails to cancel the fight for May 5th, he will go out and do what he has to do. What that means seems pretty clear. Golovkin will look to separate Canelo from his senses in the rematch and leave no doubt who the better fighter is. Golovkin’s anger over the first fight and the positive clenbuterol test for Canelo makes GGG belief he was trying to cheat to win.
“If nobody from the commission will cancel it, I will do my job,” Golovkin said. “But this is a very hot topic about doping. What did he inject in his belly? What are the marks on his belly? Look at the photos. These questions should be asked of the commission.”