By Jeff Aranow: Gennady Golovkin will stick to the May 5 date if Saul Canelo Alvarez is suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission at their next hearing on April 10. Golovkin is not giving up his May 5th date, according to his promoter Tom Loeffler.
GGG is training now, and fully intends on fighting on the 5th of May. Canelo tested positive twice for clenbuterol, and the Nevada Commission has already given the Mexican star a temporary suspension until April 10. While it was viewed as just a gesture by the Commission to show the boxing public that they were taking seriously Canelo’s 2 positive tests for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol, there’s now growing concern that they’ll give the Golden Boy star a suspension at their next hearing on April 10.
Golovkin doesn’t want to give up the May 5th date, as it’s a valuable one due to it being the Cinco de Mayo holiday weekend. That’s when a lot of Mexican boxing fans like to watch fights. But if Golovkin does stay on that date without Canelo, he’s going to need a very good opponent for him to fight. Charlo, Andrade or Sergey Derevyanchenko are all good opponents that would make for an interesting fight for Golovkin.
WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders is the guy that Golovkin and Loeffler want, but he’s not going to want to step in as a replacement opponent on 3 weeks’ notice to fight the Kazakhstan knockout artist. Besides that, Saunders wants Golovkin to come over to the UK to fight him when they do eventually face each other. That’s not going to work for Golovkin’s May 5th fight, especially if he stays at the T-Mobile Arena, which is where his rematch with Canelo is currently scheduled.
“Whatever the commission does, Gennady would still fight May 5 if Canelo is out. If for some reason it’s not against Canelo, we’ll figure out the best course of action at that time, but he is training to fight May 5,” Loeffler said to Dan Rafael of ESPN.
Thus far, former world champions Demetrius Andrade and Jermall Charlo have both volunteered to step in and face GGG. HBO is no longer listing the Canelo-Golovkin 2 fight on their upcoming calendar of events for boxing. If Golovkin stays on the May 5th date without Canelo, HBO might take his fight off PPV and put it on regular HBO. It won’t make sense for the network to place Golovkin vs. Andrade or Charlo on HBO PPV, because those aren’t fights that would sell to the boxing public. Charlo and Andrade aren’t big enough names unfortunately.
There is a tremendous amount of interest from the boxing world in the Canelo-Golovkin 2 rematch on May 5 on Cinco de Mayo. Unfortunately, Canelo’s 2 failed tests for clenbuterol has put the GGG fight at risk for May 5. Canelo and his promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are blaming the two failed tests on bad meat that the Mexican star ate while in Mexico. The Nevada Commission is expected to ultimately decide Canelo’s case on April 10 based on the clenbuterol levels of the substance that he tested positive for on February 17 and February 20.
If the levels are too high for someone having ingested contaminated beef, then Canelo could be suspended further by the Commission on April 10. It’s not likely the Commission will give Canelo another short suspension of 2 ½ weeks like the one they gave him last week. It’s believed that if Canelo is given a second suspension by the Commission, will be lengthy one that will make it impossible for him to face Golovkin on May 5.
HBO no longer promoting the upcoming Canelo-GGG 2 fight is telling. For the network to stop promoting the much anticipated Caenlo vs. Golovkin 2 fight for May 5, it shows that they have some concerns about whether the Mexican star will receive another suspension by the Commission.
“When a fighter is temporarily suspended it’s best to pause on programming promotion and resume when all is settled,” HBO spokesman Ray Stallone said to ESPN.com.
There’s still a chance that Canelo will be cleared by the Nevada Commission on April 10. If the Commission is going to be making their decision about Canelo’ case solely on the levels of clenbuterol in for his 2 positive tests, then they could clear him if they find that they’re comparable to what is seen by someone that had eaten contaminated meat that contained the substance. You’d like to think though that the Nevada Commission will be consistent with what they’ve done in the past for fighters that have tested positive or clenbuterol and used excuse about them eating contaminated meat or used nutritional products contained the substance. It’ll look bad if Canelo is treated differently than fighters in the past that have tested positive for clenbuterol.
The previous encounter between Canelo and Golovkin ended up a 12 round draw in Las Vegas on September 16. It was a controversial draw. Some boxing fans felt that Canelo was given preferential treatment by the judges that worked the fight. One judge turned in a score of 118-110 in favor of Canelo, and that immediately caused boxing fans to start pointing fingers at saying that Golovkin had been robbed. The score was just so far out of range to the fight that took place in that night, it ended up tainting the fight and making Canelo look bad.
Canelo remains unfazed by his suspension, and he’s still training with the belief that he’ll ultimately be cleared by the Commission on April 10 and permitted to fight GGG on May 5.
Canelo gassed out after two rounds against Golovkin last September. The pressure the older fighter put on Canelo wore him out like a battery. Canelo is supposed to be working on his improving his stamina, but it looks like he’s mostly riding a stationary bike to improve his stamina. Canelo probably don’t be able to make a lot of improvements in the stamina department riding a bicycle. You’ve got to do a bit more than that to fix the conditioning problems the 27-year-old Canelo showed against Golovkin last September.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCK1tZIVfqE&t=19s