By Jeff Aranow: Saul Canelo Alvarez was given a 6-month suspension on Wednesday by the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his two positive tests for clenbuterol. The 5-man Nevada Commission voted unanimously 5-0 to suspend the 27-year-old Golden Boy star for six months.
The suspension is considered a light one in the eyes of the boxing fans, who felt that at the very least; Canelo should have been given a 1-year suspension without it being reduced by six months. Canelo says he unknowingly was exposed to the clenbuterol when he ate the contaminated meat in the days before VADA tested him last February with a urinalysis.
“Canelo looks forward to returning to the ring in September for Mexican Independence Day weekend to represent Mexico and boxing in what will be the sport’s biggest event of the year. He is ready to continue his remarkable record of fighting at the highest level,” Golden Boy said in a statement.
Canelo’s six-month suspension will end on August 17, and he plans on fighting on September 15 on HBO PPV. Middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin will almost surely be his opponent.
Golovkin has to win his May 5 fight against replacement opponent Vanes Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) for him to face Canelo in their rematch on September 15. Golovkin vs. Martirosyan was announced today for HBO Championship Boxing at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. That fight won’t be televised on HBO PPV. Martirosyan is not a big enough name to interest the casual boxing fans in the U.S.
When Canelo does face Golovkin on September 15, he’ll have been out of the ring for exactly 1 year, and he might not be the same heavily muscled fighter that he was the last time he fought GGG. If Canelo looks like the fighter that fought Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. last year in May, he might be too small and weak to have a chance of winning. Canelo’s only chance is to bulk up once again as much as possible. He has plenty of time to put that muscle back on in the next five months. At Canelo’s recent meeting with the press two weeks ago, he looked a lot smaller and thinner than he had been for the GGG fight last year.
Canelo was supposed to be fighting Gennady on May 5 on HBO PPV at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo had to pull out of the fight because of the Nevada Commission meeting. It was a lot of stuff on his mind obviously. Canelo had been given a 3-week suspension by the Nevada Commission that expired on Wednesday. Unfortunately for Canelo, the Commission gave him a new suspension that wipes out his chance of fighting on May 5 or any month until mid-August. Canelo’s two positive tests for clenbuterol came on February 17 and February 20.
“As we have maintained all along, the trace amounts of clenbuterol found in Canelo’s system in February came from meat contamination, and we provided the Nevada State Athletic Commission with a great deal of evidence to support those facts,” Golden Boy Promotions said. “Although most professional sports, international anti-doping agencies and United States boxing commissions treat meat contamination differently from other positive tests, Nevada does not.”
While Canelo said he unknowingly consumed the contaminated meat that contained the clenbuterol, the Nevada Commission has rules in place that leaves the athlete responsible for what they put in their body. This meant that Canelo’s meat excuse wasn’t going to fly with the Commission. It’s not all that surprising that the Nevada Commission created the rule to make the fighters responsible for what goes into their body. With this rule now in place, it prevents fighters from saying that they went to Mexico and ate contaminated meat as well. If all the fighters are going to use the same excuse each time they test positive for clenbuterol, it would leave the Nevada Commission in the position where they have to accept these excuses and allow the fighters to still compete.