By Jeff Aranow: Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin is disappointed in Saul Canelo Alvarez following his positive test for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol this week ahead of their May 5th rematch at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) says the Nevada State Athletic Commission needs to penalize or disqualify Canelo otherwise what’s the point of there being a Commission. In Golovkin’s mind, a fighter is positive or negative when it comes to them being tested for drugs. If they’re positive, then they need to be dealt with. In other words, if a fighter tests positive, they can’t use an excuse that they ate contaminated meat and expect to be left off the hook. Canelo’s promoters are saying he tested positive because he ate meat that contained clenbuterol in Mexico, and they feel that he should be excused for the positive test.
”Failing a test at this level either means he doesn’t want to fight, has problems or has problems with his team. This is showing your true face,” Golovkin said to the latimes.com. ”Athletes at this level cannot fail or show any positive because it’s bad for sport, bad for everything.”
It’s definitely bad for the sport of boxing, as now it gives the impression that the Canelo vs. Golovkin fight might involve a fighter that didn’t do it naturally. If Canelo is viewed as being given a boost with the help of science to do what his body wouldn’t allow him to do naturally, then there’s going to be less interest in the May 5th Canelo-GGG rematch. The fight already has a strike against it because of how the judges scored their previous match on September 16th. You had Golovkin appearing to win the fight 8 rounds to 4 in the eyes of most boxing fans, but 2 of the judges turned in scorecards that looked out of place with the fight that had taken place.
“They [Nevada State Athletic Commission] have to take action in that case, either disqualify him or [deliver] penalties. But if it’s neglected, why do we need a commission? And why talk about tests?” Golovkin said.
It’s pretty clear that Canelo is not going to be disqualified for his positive test by the Nevada Commission. Canelo brings in a lot of money to the state of Nevada for his fights. Canelo brings the boxing fans in each time he fights in Las Vegas, and makes the city a ton of money. The Nevada Commission would be shooting themselves in the foot if they suspended Canelo for a period of time. If Canelo were to get upset with the Nevada Commission, he could choose never to fight in that state again. He could take his fights to Texas, which is another state that doesn’t have a state tax and it’s close to the Mexico border, so a lot of his boxing fans will be able to come see him.
It’s not reasonable to assume that the Nevada Commission will suspend Canelo now or at any time in the future no matter how many times he tests positive for PEDS. Boxing is a business, and Canelo brings in the money. Golovkin might not be seeing the big picture. He’s seeing boxing as a true sport rather than as a business. Canelo. The only thing Golovkin can do is take his business elsewhere if he’s not happy with the Nevada Commission if they fail to fine or suspend Canelo. If Golovkin chooses to never fight in Nevada again, then he doesn’t need to worry about the problem. But I don’t think Golovkin will ever get another fight against Canelo again unless he agrees to fight in Nevada, because I doubt that he’ll ever leave the state for the remainder of his career. Nevada has been a good luck charm for Canelo. He didn’t lose to Erislandy Lara and Golovkin in fights that took place in Las Vegas when he probably should have. Even in his fight with Floyd Mayweather in 2013, Canelo was given a draw by one of the judges. That was terribly one-sided fight in favor of Mayweather, and you still had one judge scoring it 114-114.
“Let’s keep it simple: There’s a drug test. It’s either yes or no. The rest doesn’t matter. That’s why the commission exists. That’s why there are regulations,” Golovkin said. “If you say it’s OK, it’s legal, that’s bad for the sport … I won’t even say it’s boxing. Do we say it’s now like Cyborgs, Transformers?”
What Golovkin appears to be saying here is that you don’t get a free pass if you test positive and blame it on eating tainted meat filled with clenbuterol. If you test positive for clenbuterol or any performance enhancing drug, then you should be penalized. Giving excuses to get out of a positive test leads to any fighter using the excuse to avoid being punished. Golovkin is right. Why do you need a Commission and regulations if a fighter can use an excuse to get out of a positive test? There’s no way of knowing whether that fighter was telling the truth or not.
Golovkin appears to be furious about Canelo’s positive test for clenbuterol. It taints the rematch, because it’s not the best against the best when you’ve got a clean fighter going up against someone that is getting a little helping hand from science.
There were already a lot of boxing fans that suspected that Canelo was using PEDs before his first fight with Golovkin. Canelo’s transformation of his physique from his previous fight against Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. to how his body looked against GGG, it was very surprising. Canelo’s physique wasn’t rippling with highly defined muscles against Chavez Jr. in their fight on May 6th, but against Golovkin four months later, he looked like a bodybuilder. The boxing fans on social media were very suspicious of Canelo before the Triple G fight last September. And now that Canelo has tested positive for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol, it validates the opinions of many of those fans.
Some fans compare a fighter using PEDs to a fighter loading up his gloves with concrete to fight. The fans see it as cheating and potentially life threatening to the fighter that has to deal with being hit by a guy that is using PEDs, which is why it’s important for the Commissions to be tough on users of the drugs. Perhaps the Commissions need to band together and start handing out lifetime bans for PED use. That might stop the practice. Until the Commissions take a firm stance against the drug users, there will continue to be cheaters.