By Jeff Aranow: Promoter Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing says everyone was already suspicious of Saul Canelo Alvarez even before his recent 2 failed drug tests for clenbuterol after they saw his physique on the scales before his fight against Gennady Golovkin last September in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Hearn thinks Canelo’s reputation will be forever tarnished due 2 positive drug tests for clenbuterol on February 17 and February 20. Canelo was tested by VADA just at the start of his training camp to get ready for his May 5th rematch against Triple G, which is now in serious jeopardy after the Nevada State Athletic Commission gave the Mexican star a temporary suspension. Canelo is saying he ate contaminated meat. Hearn says he doesn’t know whether Canelo used PEDs to chear. He thinks that the truth will never be known for sure.
”Was he cheating? Was he unlucky? Either way his reputation is tarnished forever because it doesn’t matter — you fail a drug test, you fail a drug test,” Hearn said to Fighthub about Canelo’s 2 failed drug tests last February. “The truth is that we’ll probably never know. You have to make your own decisions and judgments, which is sometimes dangerous.”
If the Nevada Commission can’t prove 100 percent that Canelo accidentally tested positive for clenbuterol, then it makes it seem likely that they’re going to postpone the fight. If it comes down to a judgement call on the Commission’s part in them clearing Canelo to fight, then there’s the potential that they could be wrong. If they’re wrong and Canelo did cheat rather than testing positive from eating contaminated meat, it means that Golovkin could face a fighter that used clenbuterol to cheat.
As far as whether Canelo’s career will be tarnished from this episode, he can get past this if he tests clean for the remainder of his career. But if he continues to test positive occasionally for PEDs, then it’ll be bad for him, because then many in the boxing public will view him as a cheat. It’s important for Canelo to be careful where he purchases his meat from now on. Canelo needs to have his meat imported into Mexico rather than eating the meat sold within the country.
It can be potentially dangerous for Golovkin if Canelo is cleared by the Nevada Commission, who attributes his positive tests due to his excuse of having eaten contaminated meat. If Canelo’s positive test was from him using clenbuterol intentionally and not from having eaten contaminated meat, then Golovkin could be facing a guy with an advantage over him on May 5.
“You look at his physique on the scales for the last Golovkin fight, everyone is already suspicious, and ever more so now,” Hearn said. ”it’s terrible for boxing that possibly, or the biggest superstar in the sport has failed a drug test.”
For a lot of people, Canelo’s physique is what made them suspicious originally that he was taking something. Boxing fans were commenting about Canelo’s latest look to his physique before he fought Golovkin last September. People were posing before and after photos of Canelo and he looked different in terms of his physique with how defined he’d become. The fans didn’t know whether Canelo was using PEDs or not, but many of them thought it odd how much his body had changed.
It looks bad that so many boxing fans are talking about Canelo’s positive test. If the Nevada Commission clears Canelo after his 2 positive tests, then they’re going to need a good explanation to tell the world, because they’re going to wonder why he’s been allowed to continue fighting GGG. Testing once is bad enough, but Canelo tested positive on 2 occasions with the tests coming three days apart on February 17 and February 20. What’s unknown is whether people that test positive for clenbuterol from having eaten contaminated meat are still testing positive three days later. I guess it’s possible if a person has been eating the same contaminated meat for days or if they ate so much of the contaminated meat that the substance stayed in their body for several days. This is all stuff that doping experts should know about when the Nevada Commission meets on April 10 for their full hearing on Canelo’s clenbuterol case.
“Ultimately you are responsible for your sample. So anyone that gets caught is guilty,” Hearn said.
Judging by what Hearn is saying, he seems to be leaning in the direction of penalizing anyone that tests positive for a banned drug, period. If the idea is that a fighter is ultimately responsible for his own sample, then excuses like the one Canelo is using about him having eaten contaminated meat won’t work with Hearn. If it’s to the fighter to be careful what he eats to avoid eating contaminated food products, then there’s going to be a lot of guys getting suspended, because they’re going to slip up and eat something they shouldn’t eat sooner or later. If the Commission is going to find them guilty every time, then a lot of guys will wind up suspended.
”His team, Canelo Alvarez, these are professionals. If there is any doubt that the meat or food is contaminated, it’s your responsibility,” Hearn said. ”If this has happened before they should know that “meat in Mexico” has the ability to be contaminated. Therefore, don’t eat meat in Mexico because, as I said, you are responsible for your sample,” Hearn said.
Obviously, the Nevada Commission doesn’t see positive tests for PEDs in the same way Hearn does. They believe that if fighters that can prove they tested positive for a PED by eating contaminated food or nutritional products, then they should be found innocent. Where it becomes an issue is if drug cheats use the same contaminated meat excuse as the innocent fighters, and they’re able to escape punishment and continue with their training for a fight. If the drug cheat can go into the fight with the advantage of having gone through a cycle of a potent PED, then it’s not an even playing field.
“Having spoken to doctors, when we put a VADA random testing in process, previously we’ve done it with 8 weeks to go,” Hearn said. The doctors have told me this is the biggest waste of time game. You need it 16 weeks out because a drug cheat will stop their cycle probably by 8 weeks…which is about the time that this has happened, which again don’t look great. He has been found guilty. He has failed a drug test,” Hearn said.
It sounds like VADA is testing at the wrong time if they’re waiting until 8 weeks before a fight to start testing a fighter. If it’s true what Hearn says about fighters using their cycles of PEDs 16 weeks out and stopping 8 weeks before their fights, then VADA is being gamed by them. They need to start testing 16 weeks out. Of course, if VADA starts then 16 weeks out, you never know if a fighter is going to start using PEDs 24 weeks out. I don’t know how much gain they’ll have using PEDs that far away from a fight, but you never know. VADA likely knows that some fighters are using PEDs starting 16 weeks before a fight. The money might not be there for VADA to begin testing that far out from a fight. Testing costs money, and the costs would likely be higher for VADA to start tested at 16 weeks rather than waiting until 8 weeks before a fight.
