By Jeff Aranow: Former featherweight world champion Barry McGuigan believes Mexican star Saul Canelo Alvarez should receive nothing less than a lifetime ban from boxing for his two positive tests for the banned substance clenbuterol while training for his now canceled May 5 fight against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin.
McGuigan points out that boxing is different from cycling when it comes to an athlete testing positive for a performance enhancing drug. When someone tests positive in cycling, they’re not putting a person’s life at stake. In boxing, it’s a different story. Someone can get seriously hurt in fighting a boxer that is using PEDs, McGuigan points out.
Canelo, 27, will be meeting with the Nevada State Athletic Commission this Wednesday, April 18 for them to hand out a likely 1-year suspension, which they are expected to reduce to 6 months. McGuigan thinks there should be zero tolerance for the fighters that test positive for PEDs, but he acknowledges that the sport of boxing is a business and Canelo is a popular ticket seller and he brings in a lot of buys on PPV.
”Any fighter testing positive for substances of this kind, in this case Clenbuterol, should be banned for life,” McGuigan said to the mirror.co.uk.
Well, Canelo is blaming his 2 positive tests for clenbuterol on contaminated meat he ate while training. That excuse doesn’t look like it’s going to work with the Nevada Commission. It used to work, but it looks like the Nevada Commission has changed their rules and now makes the athlete responsible for what goes into their bodies. It’s unclear whether New York, California and Texas accept that excuse for positive tests for clenbuterol. You can bet that if fighters test positive for clenbuterol in those states, it will likely be well-publicized.
”We are not talking cycling or athletics here. In boxing, augmented physical performance can be fatal. Someone could be killed by the enhanced power of an opponent,” McGuigan.
McGuigan brings up a good point about boxing being different from cycling. When someone uses PEDs in boxing, you would have to believe that they could potentially do more damage to their opponent. In cycling, the person using PEDs is trying to win a speed race and no one gets hurt physically. Perhaps someday the boxing commissions may adopt a zero-tolerance policy for PEDs, but right now that’s not happening. They’re giving fighters that test positive for PEDs more chances. Some fighters test positive more than once, and they still can fight after their suspension ends.
Golovkin missed out on what could have been the biggest payday of his career with the May 5th rematch with Canelo being canceled after he pulled out of the fight following his two positive tests for clenbuterol. Golovkin has had very bad luck when it comes to Canelo. In his fight with him last September, Golovkin had to settle for a 12 round draw in a fight that the boxing public overwhelmingly saw as a victory for him. Had Golovkin been given a win, he would have been able to ask for a bigger split of the revenue than he would in receiving a draw.
Golovkin and his promoter Tom Loeffler are trying to find an opponent to fight on the May 5th date. The venue has changed from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada to the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The opponent that they want, Vanes Martirosyan, has been approved by the California Commission, WBA and WBC. However, the IBF wants Golovkin to defend against his mandatory Sergiy Derevyanchenko on that date, and unless he faces him or works out a deal, he could lose his IBF belt by the title being stripped by the sanctioning body. Golovkin doesn’t want that to happen, so there’s a high possibility that he’ll scrap the May 5th fight date rather than face Martirosyan and lose his IBF title.