Hearn remarks on Golovkin calling Canelo a drug cheat

By Boxing News - 03/23/2018 - Comments

Image: Hearn remarks on Golovkin calling Canelo a drug cheat

By Jeff Aranow: Promoter Eddie Hearn thinks Gennady Golovkin has suddenly created a lot of interest in his rematch with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez this week by calling him a “drug cheat” and showing a completely different side of his personality that he’d shown before.

Hearn believes that this is what was missing from the Canelo-Golovkin fight. The two fighters weren’t saying bad stuff about each other in the first fight last September, but after Canelo’s two positive tests for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol, Golovkin has angrily gone after the Mexican star.

Hearn feels that the fight should be called off if Canelo knowingly cheated by using the drug. If he accidentally tested positive by eating contaminated meat, as he maintains, then the fight should be allowed to take place on May 5. Hearn doesn’t know how the investigators from the Nevada Commission are going to be able to determine whether Canelo tested positive from meat or if he chose to cheat by taking the clenbuterol.

“It’s great. He changed the complete dynamics of the fight, which is really what the fight needed, but unfortunately the circumstances are what caused it,” Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn said of Golovkin calling Canelo Alvarez a “drug cheat” following his two positive tests for clenbuterol. ”Golovkin’s comments in the last 48 hours are unbelievable with the accusations. That’s not like him at all, but good on him. But I don’t I don’t know the truth, so I can’t judge,” Hearn said.

Initially, Golovkin seemed to take the new of Canelo testing positive without losing his temper. GGG kind of shrugged his shoulders, saying that he would back whatever decision the Nevada Commission makes about Canelo. However, over time, Golovkin’s attitude seemed to change about Canelo’s positive test until earlier this week, he snapped when being interviewed by the media on Tuesday. Golovkin revealed what he thought of Canelo by calling him a drug cheat, and saying that he suspected that he had used the drug last year before their fight in September. It didn’t look good for Canelo that his body went from being a big guy to looking like he was totally cut up in terms of his muscle definition. That change in Canelo’s physique is what caught the attention from legions of boxing fans. Canelo hadn’t looked like that in the first 11 years of his career, and then all of a sudden his physique looked different before the GGG fight.

”It don’t look good for Canelo, but I want to see the fight,” Hearn said of the Canelo-GGG 2 fight. ”If he’s knowingly cheated, should the fight go ahead? Absolutely not! If he was unlucky, should the fight go ahead? Yes. I don’t know the truth,” Hearn said.

How does the Commission prove that Canelo is innocent or guilty? That’s the whole problem. There’s no way of proving guilt. Some boxing fans think Canelo should have his hair follicles tests. Golovkin said he wants Canelo to agree to a lie detector test. Those things aren’t used by the Commission in fact finding to determine whether a fighter is guilty of using PEDs or not. It could be that Canelo simply saying he ate contaminated meat will be good enough for him to be cleared. Hearn believes that the fighters are responsible for what they put in their body. So if they eat contaminated meat that contains a banned drug, then that’s on them. They should have known about the risk of eating meat and looked for an alternative to avoid the risk. If the Commission decides that Canelo is guilty of using PEDs because he can’t tell them where he purchased it, then that should solve the problem. But it’s not likely the Commission will take that stance. If Canelo’s memory is foggy about where he purchased the contaminated meat, it’s possible that he might be cleared by the Commission. It might come down to whether the Commission buys Canelo’s excuse of him having purchased contaminated meat. Even if he can’t lead them to where he or his team purchased it, they might choose to clear him. He’s never tested positive before. If Canelo continues to test positive for clenbuterol in the future using the same contaminated meat excuse, then that probably won’t work for him, but you never know. This is boxing.

”Like I said, it don’t look good (for Canelo), but it’s not for me to judge,” Hearn said of Canelo’s two positive tests for clenbuterol.

Hearn doesn’t say what he means by saying “it don’t look good for Canelo.” Is he talking about Canelo looking ripped at the same time he tested positive for a drug or does he mean that his two positive tests making him look bad. A person can test positive twice for clenbuterol if they’re eating contaminated meat. What don’t know is how long was Canelo eating the contaminated meat? Has he been eating the meat for two months? If so, that’s a long time for Canelo to be getting exposed to clenbuterol. Should the fight still be allowed to go ahead if Canelo was eating contaminated meat for a prolonged period of time? Is that similar to a person using a cycle of clenbuterol? We don’t know any of this. It would be bad for Golovkin if Canelo’s stamina is improved because of him eating the contaminated meat. In that case, you can argue that the fight should be postponed. But if Canelo goes back to Mexico and starts eating the meat again, then what’s to stop him from testing positive again?

”I don’t feel that the job of the governing body or a belt governing body is to make a decision on the basis of a VADA sample,” Hearn said of World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman
weighing in on his thoughts on Canelo’s innocence over his positive test for clenbuterol. “That should be done by VADA. Does VADA make a decision? Do they make a ruling or do they say he failed a test, and that’s what we can tell you. We can’t tell you how he failed it. We’re just telling you he failed a test,” Hearn said.

VADA doesn’t make the decisions about what will happen with Canelo’s positive drug test. That’s up to the Nevada Commission. Perhaps it would be better if it were VADA that makes the call. That’s not how it’s going to go with Canelo’s investigation. The Nevada Commission is doing the investigation, and they’ll be the ones that will decide as soon as they finish it. Whatever they decide, it could be an unpopular decision. The fight isn’t that far off though. The glacial pace at which the Commission is investigating Canelo’s positive tests suggests that they’ll decide in his favor.

”Ultimately, the fighters have to be responsible for what goes in their body,” Hearn said about fighters that give the excuse that they ate contaminated meat that caused them to test positive for clenbuterol. ”It’s tough. We could argue all day and most people have a reason why they want to or don’t want Canelo to fight,” Hearn said.

If fighters really were responsible for what they put in their bodies, then would eliminate completely the clenbuterol meat excuse that is now being used. It would also eliminate the nutritional supplements excuses as well. Unfortunately, it’s not likely that the boxing commissions will prevent fighters from using those excuses, so you can expect the excuses to continue.

It’s too bad that what caused Golovkin to start trash talking is something that was so serious. When a fighter tests positive for PEDs, it’s a matter that has to be taken as serious, because it could tip the fight in the direction of the fighter that is using the drugs. Using PEDS is viewed differently by boxing fans as someone that would load up their hand wraps with plaster, but it’s still a very serious thing when someone tries to change their chemistry to become stronger or be able to fight more endurance than their body naturally allows for them. The Commissions and VADA need to make their rules more definitive for penalizing fighters the moment they test positive rather than allowing them loopholes to escape punishment.

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