By Sean Jones: Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez states that the Nevada State Athletic Commission allowed Saul Canelo Alvarez to use illegal hand wrapping technique called ‘stacking’ for the previous fight between them on September 16 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Canelo and Golovkin will be facing each other in a rematch on May 5 on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Canelo insisted on the rematch taking place in Vegas and he got his way.
The controversy that has surfaced about Canelo’s gloves for the first GGG fight comes at a bad time for the red-headed Mexican star, as he tested positive for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol for last month. The Nevada State Athletic Commission is conducting their investigation of the positive test from the 27-year-old Canelo.
Sanchez says that when he complained about Canelo’s hand wrapping, which he called a ‘cast,’ the Nevada commission inspector almost tossed him from the room before the September 16 fight. Sanchez says Canelo was allowed to use the illegal wraps for the GGG fight, a fight that was scored a controversial 12 round draw. Canelo’s promoter Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions says Sanchez lacks experience of being in Las Vegas for fights, as this is how hands are wrapped in fights that take place in that city, according to Yahoo Sports News.
Gomez says Canelo has always had his hands wrapped like that, and he further states that Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. also had their hands wrapped in the same way and it wasn’t a problem. Gomez says they’ll follow the rules by the Nevada Commission, but he doesn’t see Canelo having to change the way he wraps his hands in the future. What this means is that if Canelo is allowed to use the stacking technique for his hand wraps, Sanchez can do the same thing with Golovkin to thicken up his hands.
As long as the inspector for the Nevada Commission is allowing Canelo to wrap his hands with the stacking technique, then Sanchez should be given the green light to do the same with Golovkin. Now if all of a sudden Sanchez is prevented from having GGG’s wrapped in the same way Canelo is, then it would be a sign that the Nevada Commission inspector is setting different standards for the two fighters. Sanchez already feels that the Nevada Commission leans in Canelo’s favor. Sanchez’s belief in that theory has been formed by how Canelo was allowed to stack his hands last September, as well as the scoring by the Nevada State Athletic Commission assigned judges for the Canelo-GGG fight.
“They put the gauze on his hand and he put one layer of gauze on the hand and then they put the tape on top of the gauze,” Sanchez said via Yahoo Sports News. “Immediately, I caught that and I said, ‘Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! That’s illegal. He can’t do that.’ And the inspector looked at me and said, ‘Yes, he can do that.’ It’s called stacking and it’s illegal and you can’t do that. It’s creating a cast. We kept going back and forth to the point where he threatened to throw me out of the room. “But they put a layer of gauze on and then two or three layers of tape on top of that, and then gauze and tape again. That’s illegal.”
According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports News, Sanchez met with Nevada State Athletic Commission, Sanchez met with Bob Bennett, the executive director of the Nevada Commission, immediately after the Canelo-GGG fight last September but he didn’t have any success in discussing his issues that he had with Canelo’s hand wrapping.
Nevada Commission chairman Anthony Marnell told Yahoo that the hand wrap policy will stay consistent with what it has in the past. ”We will continue to enforce our policy as we always have and if that upsets Abel, well, there are other places to fight. I don’t see it changing for May 5; well, I can guarantee it won’t change for May 5,” Marnell said to Yahoo.
Well, if Golovkin knocks out Canelo on May 5th, then Sanchez might be able to take Marnell’s advice and persuade GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler to take the third Canelo-Golovkin fight outside of the state of Nevada. I doubt that’s going to happen though. Canelo will continue to be the A-side regardless if he loses badly to Golovkin. Since it seems that Canelo only wants to fight Golovkin in Las Vegas, it means the third fight will wind up in that city.
Given that the hand-wrapping technique that Sanchez calls illegal ‘stacking’ is permitted by the Nevada Commission, it’s safe to say that Canelo will have his hands wrapped in the same way for the rematch, as well as a third fight if it takes place in that state. Golovkin can always try standing firm by refusing to go back to Nevada for a third fight, but that’s not likely to happen. Golovkin will likely bend to the wishes of where Canelo wants the third fight. The location for the second Canelo vs. Golokvin fight has already been decided by Golden Boy Promotions and GGG’s promoter Tom Loeffler for Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena.
Sanchez should have been a little more assertive if he wanted to push for the rematch to take place outside of Nevada. But by doing that, Golovkin might have lost the fight, because Canelo has other options to make good money fighting on HBO pay-per-view in Vegas. As the saying goes, ‘when in Rome do as the Romans do.’ Sanchez can use the same stacking style of hand wrapping for Golovkin for the Canelo fight. If it adds weight to Golovkin’s punches, it’s going to be that much harder for Canelo to take those blows compared to for the first fight. You can argue that Sanchez should have gone back to his dressing room after he saw that the Nevada Commission inspector was allowing Canelo to use the stacking technique for his hands, and he should wrapped GGG’s hands in the same way. That would have made it an even playing field for the fight. Golovkin can reject further fights in Las Vegas if he wants to. He’ll still likely get the third fight with Canelo anyway. Once Golden Boy Promotions realizes how limited the opportunities are for Canelo at 160 in terms of big fights, they’ll gladly agree to matching him against GGG outside of Nevada. The look the options for Canelo: Sergiy Derevyanchenko, Daniel Jacobs, Jermall Charlo, Billy Joe Saunders, Ryota Murata and Demetrius Andrade. None of those guys are stars, and those are all tough options for Canelo. He could lose to all of those fighters. Of course, if Canelo has similar judging as he did in the Golovkin fight last September, he’ll be fine against those guys. It would be bad for Canelo to get a reputation for a fighter who is involved in controversial decisions each time he fights good opposition, because that would make him look like a non-legitimate fighter. Canelo’s past fights against quality fighters – Floyd Mayweather Jr., Austin Trout, Golovkin and Erislandy Lara – all involved controversial decisions or controversial judges’ scores.
Earlier this week, news has surfaced that Canelo has tested positive for the banned drug clenbuterol. Sanchez is hoping that the Nevada State Athletic Commission does a thorough investigation into the positive test from Canelo, and they don’t just let it go without checking into it fully. Sanchez says fighters don’t just suddenly start testing positive for a drug like clenbuterol after years. Sanchez sees Canelo’s positive test for the performance enhancing drug as being something that is highly suspicious in nature. Canelo hadn’t been testing positive clenbuterol in his other fights in his 13-year pro career, but then when he’s a dangerous puncher in IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs), he suddenly tests positive for the banned drug. Canelo’s positive test results for clenbuterol are being blamed on tainted meat he ate in Mexico. The positive tests, which were identified by VADA, showed up for Canelo last month on February 17 and February 20.
Sanchez says he isn’t sure whether Canelo is a cheater or not when it comes to him testing positive for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol. Sanchez feels that there’s a possibility that Canelo did eat infected meat that contained clenbuterol.
“This stuff [Clenbuterol], it’s not something you start using because of a whim,” Sanchez said. “People who are cheaters, if he is, and I’m not saying it’s not the beef, because it could be the meat…you just don’t start all of a sudden using that,” Sanchez said.
The level of clenbuterol that Canelo showed up positive for during the VADA test were low, and Golden Boy is saying that it’s a sign that he ate infected meat that contained the drug in Mexico. The end result of all of this is the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight will go ahead for May 5th. The Nevada Commission will likely make sure that Canelo is tested more frequently by VADA in the remaining 2 months before the rematch with GGG. If Canelo tests positive again for clenbuterol, it’s going to put the Nevada Commission in the position where they’ll need to make a decision whether or not to allow the Canelo vs. Golovkin rematch to go on. With Canelo’s training camp being moved to the U.S, there’s no logical reason why he should continue to test positive for clenbuterol. The meat in the U.S isn’t tainted with clenbuterol, so that excuse won’t work if Canelo keeps testing positive.