By Sean Jones: Gennady Golovkin believes that Saul Canelo Alvarez was using performance enhancing drugs (PEDs) before their first fight last September, and he says he saw injection marks on his muscles.
Golovkin says a doctor should be asked about the injection marks on Canelo’s body from what he believes he injected the PEDs to gain an advantage over him.
Golovkin is highly upset still about the 27-year-old Canelo testing positive for the banned substance clenbuterol for two tests last February. Clenuterol is a potent PED that assists with burning fast and increasing the oxygen distribution in one’s body. It’s believed to help increase stamina among other things. Victor Conte, an expert on PEDs, says clenbuterol would help a fighter for his performances.
Canelo’s management’s excuse for his positive test for clenbuterol was due to him having consumed contaminated meat. It hasn’t been proven yet by their team or by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who oversee investigating Canelo’s case. They have the excuse from Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions that he ate tainted beef. Now it’s up to the Commission to decide what they’re going to do.
If there was a no tolerance policy for boxers that tested positive for clenbuterol, then it would be difficult for anyone testing positive for this drug.
Canelo’s management is saying that the low levels of clenbuterol in his 2 positive tests are consistent with food contamination.
“It was pretty obvious his muscles had visible injections,” Golovkin said to Lance Pugmire of the LA Times. “Take a look at the photos and ask a doctor.”
Someone supposedly sent a video to Golovkin showing Canelo with needle marks on his abdomen. That would be a crazy place for a fighter to have an injection before a fight. The video doesn’t prove anything. The only thing that means anything in boxing is the drug tests, and Canelo didn’t fail any tests conducted by VADA for the first fight. Golovkin should have talked to the media about his suspicions about Canelo at the time rather than waiting until two months before his rematch to start airing them. Right now, it’s too late to talk about the first fight. Canelo’s positive tests for clenbuterol from February 17 and 20 are what’s important. If the Commission is going to let the rematch go ahead, then they need to ensure that Canelo is tested as much as possible all the way up to the night of the fight and afterwards.
Clenbuterol can be taken orally or by injection. What has many fans in the boxing world suspicious of Canelo before and during his first fight with Golovkin was how different his physique looked compared to his previous fights during his career. Canelo’s physique had never looked ripped with incredible definition before in the first 12 years of his career. The definition that Canelo had was the type that you see in bodybuilders. In Canelo’s fights before that, he had always looked muscular, but he had fat on him and he wasn’t totally defined like that. The way that Canelo’s body was transformed so quickly is what sent alarm bells going off in the minds of a lot of boxing fans. The transformation occurred even before Canelo stepped foot inside the ring with Golovkin last September. That’s what the fans were suspicious about.
In looking at Canelo’s training photos in the run up to the fight, his head looked like it had been photo-shopped onto the physique of a bodybuilder, because his body had changed so much. The before and after photos of Canelo are what a lot of the fans have been talking about for months on Youtube. Canelo didn’t look totally buffed and defined in his fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. on May 6, 2017. Four months later, Canelo came into the Golovkin fight on September 16 looking like a different person. That’s what made boxing fans suspicious of Canelo. That was before Canelo had tested positive for clenbuterol. He was clean for the drug tests for the first Golovkin fight last year. But what we don’t know is whether Canelo was using PEDs before he started training camp for the first fight with GGG, because the testing by VADA begins just 8 weeks before the fights.
“We expect there to be a fight May 5,” Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said to Lance Pugmire about the Canelo vs. GGG 2 fight.
The Canelo-Golovkin fight is still going ahead as of now for May 5. Hopefully for the sake of Canelo and Triple G the investigation by the Commission is wrapped up soon. It would be a shame if the Commission drags out the investigation up until two weeks before the fight before they reveale what the results are. If they suspend Canelo, then both fighters will have wasted almost an entire training camp.
However, Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez believes that Canelo is receiving ”preferential treatment” by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. “We’ll start down two points,” Sanchez said in believing that Golovkin will already be two points down when the fight begins on May 5th.
The VADA testing obviously works, as it showed a positive for Canelo testing positive for clenbuterol. What might not work is the Commission. The Commission needs to decide the case and come up with a good results that the fans agree with and understand. If Canelo merely ate tainted beef, then the Commission can explain their findings.
The VADA drug testing didn’t start any earlier than it had in the past. It would have been better if the testing would be 24/7, 365 days a year for high publicity fighters. After this positive test, Canelo needs to step up to the plate and show the boxing world that he’s a clean fighter by agreeing to be tested year-round by VADA. If he doesn’t do that, he’ll be viewed with suspicion by boxing fans and boxers.
It’s Canelo’s responsibility to know that there was a chance of him testing positive if he consumed untested beef in Mexico. The fans don’t understand how a fighter that is as knowledgeable as Canelo would test positive for eating contaminated meat in Mexico. That’s the reason the fans are coming down hard on Canelo. They don’t understand how Canelo could test positive for PEDs after all these years as a pro.