By Sean McDaniel: Gennady Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler says he’s waiting on the Nevada State Athletic Commission about what direction they’re going to go in in dealing with Saul Canelo Alvarez’s positive drug test for clenbuterol. Loeffler says the Canelo-GGG 2 rematch is still planned for May 5th.
It was revealed by ESPN on Monday that the 27-year-old Canelo had tested positive for clenbuterol, a performance enhancing substance, on February 17 and February 20th in the VADA’s testing of the Mexican star.
”Now we’re just going to wait for more information,” Loeffler said to skysports.com. ”We are going to stick to what the Commission says, we also have to see what the agencies say, the Commission has a regulation and a procedure, so we are going to be guided in this case,” Loeffler said.
If it’s so easy for fighters to come up positive for clenbuterol by eating tainted meat, then the Commission may need to change their rules and ignore future positive tests for this chemical.
It’s said to be difficult to separate intentional doping with clenbuterol from meat contamination. One theory is that hair testing is a way of proving whether the use of clenbuterol is deliberate or accidental by innocent meat contamination.
The question is should Canelo be allowed to still fight Golovkin on the 5th of May in Las Vegas, Nevada after the positive test? If Canelo can get out of being punished for the positive test, it’s going to look to some like he was given preferential treatment. Heavyweight Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne tested positive for clenbuterol, and he was stripped of his WBA title and given a ban for 8 months. Browne denied using the drug, but still was punished.
Its stunning news that Canelo, the fighter with a squeaky clean reputation, has been popped for clenbuterol, although it’s said the positive test is from tainted meat. Canelo’s promoters at Golden Boy Promotions are saying that he didn’t cheat, and that it was a result of tainted meat. Golovkin has been strangely quiet about Canelo’s positive test. It’s important for him to at least have something to say about it. After all, it’s Golovkin that could will be facing Canelo on May 5th.
Golovkin really wants the rematch. If Canelo winds up being penalized by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, it could mean that Triple G might have to wait for many months before he gets the chance to fight him again. Golovkin has already been waiting 6 months since the last fight. Canelo wanted to take a lot of time off before facing Golovkin in a rematch because of how hard the fight was for him.
Canelo didn’t get hit that much by Golovkin in their September 16th. Canelo was moving his head constantly to get out of the way of GGG’s heavy shots, and he was using movement as well to keep out of harm’s way. If Golovkin has to wait a year for him to get a rematch against Canelo, then that could hurt him a lot more. Golovkin will be turning 36 in April. The longer he has to wait for the rematch the more it helps the younger 27-year-old Canelo.
“At the moment we do not have the complete information and we reserve the right to issue comments,” Loeffler said. “We will see what the VADA says, what the Commission says, the agencies.” The fight is still on for now.”
It might be impossible to prove that Canelo intentionally cheated. In that case, the Nevada State Athletic Commission will need to decide whether his tainted meat excuse will be good enough to let him receive a pass. If that happens, then the Commission might need to think about letting ALL fighters in the future be given a free pass if they use the tainted meat excuse for why they tested positive for clenbuterol. It’ll look funny if only Canelo is given a free pass after testing positive for clenbuterol.