By Jeff Aranow: Saul Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin’s May 5th rematch will still go ahead as planned despite the Mexican’s star’s positive test for the banned substance clenburterol. Canelo’s promoters Golden Boy Promotions were quick to send out a statement to the boxing media earlier on Monday to address the positive test from their star Canelo.
It’s good for the fans to know that the rematch will take place between Canelo and Triple G, because there are a lot of people are eagerly looking forward to this fight.
The blame for the positive test by the 27-year-old Canelo (49-2-1, 34 KOs) is being placed on contaminated meat the he ingested in Mexico while getting ready for his second contest against GGG on the 5th of May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. The fight will be televised on HBO PPV as well. Canelo will need to consider changing where he trains for his fights if there’s going to be the potential of him eating contaminated meet in the future. If Canelo can train the entire 8 weeks in the U.S for his future fights, then he should be fine. If that’s going to be a hardship for Canelo, then he could have his food shipped to him from outside of Mexico.
Tom Loeffler, the promoter for Triple G, has been informed of Canelo’s positive test for clenbuterol. The Nevada State Athletic Commission has also been told of the positive test. It’s unclear what move they’ll be making in response to the positive test. Loeffler isn’t ready to make a comment about Canelo’s positive test right now. He says he wants to wait for VADA to give more information about positive test.
Canelo will continue to be tested by VADA, Dr. Margaret Goodman said to ESPN.com. “The current plan is to continue to test Mr. Alvarez so that the Nevada State Athletic Commission can make a final determination. Mr. Alvarez has the right to promptly request analysis of the ‘B’ samples at his expense.”
Both of Canelo’s tests for drugs on February 17 and February 20 turned up positive for the banned substance clenbuterol, according to Dan Rafael of ESPN. Canelo had been training in of Guadalajara, Mexico in getting ready for the GGG rematch. It’s unclear whether Canelo ate contaminated meat on both of those dates in February. Testing positive for both dates suggests that Canelo ate the contaminated meat on February 17th and February 20th unless the substance stays in one’s body for days after being ingested.
The substance clenbuterol has turned up during drug tests for other Mexican boxers in the past, and contaminated meat is what the tests have been blamed on. If contaminated beef is as widespread as some believe it to be, Canelo is fortunate that he’s made it this far in his career without testing positive. Canelo has been tested by VADA since 2012, and it’s only now where he’s come up positive for clenbuterol.
Golovkin and Canelo Alvarez are being tested by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association. This was something that they both agreed on. It’s a massive surprise that Canelo tested positive though, as he’s never been popped in the past for drug tests.
Canelo is trying to get ready for the rematch against GGG. He doesn’t need these kinds of headaches with a positive drug test. Canelo had a demanding time against Golovkin last year in their fight on September 16th, as he didn’t have the gas tank to fight hard enough to win the fight. Canelo is trying to improve his conditioning for the rematch, but it could be a hopeless case.
While the excuse for Canelo’s positive test for clenbuterol is because of the contaminated food he ate, we don’t know is whether the boxing fans are going to believe it or not. Some of the fans are going to look at Canelo’s positive test for clenbuterol, which is considered a performance enhancing substance, and they’re going to view his performance in the first fight, as well as whatever he does in the second fight, with jaundiced eye. Some of the fans are going to see Canelo as a cheater now. That’s the unfortunate thing that comes after a fighter tests positive for a substance. Even when they say that they ingested contaminated products, a lot of boxing fans don’t believe them. Canelo’s transformation of his physique for the previous fight with Golovkin already had a lot of fans pointing suspecting him of foul play. But with the positive test for clenbuterol, it’s going to make many of the fans even more suspicious.
“I am an athlete who respects the sport, and this surprises me and bothers me because it had never happened to me,” Alvarez said in a statement about the positive test. ”I will submit to all the tests that require me to clarify this embarrassing situation and I trust that at the end the truth will prevail.”
Yes, you can imagine that Canelo is embarrassed by all of this, because now he’ll have to deal with some boxing fans suspecting that he’s using performance enhancing drugs to get an edge in his fights. If the fans doubt that Canelo has been doing it naturally all these years, then they won’t give him credit for when he wins fights. It’s a bad position for Canelo to be in. If he wins, he gets no credit, and if he loses, some fans will figure he didn’t take his PEDs for that fight. It’s one of those things that will take time for the boxing world to forget about Canelo’s positive test. If he tests positive a second time, then it could be difficult for him to make the fans ever forget. If this is the only positive test that Canelo has during his career, then you must believe that the fans will eventually forget about it after a number of years.
Golovkin wants to make sure he knocks Canelo out in the May 5th rematch, as believes he did more than enough to get the victory in the first fight on September 16th last year. Golovkin does not want to go through the same experience again with the judges taking away a second victory from him. Golovkin will be at a disadvantage fighting in Canelo’s venue in Las Vegas with the crowd being on his side. That’s why GGG wants to make sure the judges don’t get a chance to control the outcome.