By Dan Ambrose: Gennady Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez says the rematch with Saul Canelo Alvarez is farther away today than it should be due to the Mexican star not having enrolled in a drug testing program since he was given a 6-month suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission last month on April 18 after testing positive twice for clenbuterol.
With Canelo still not having enrolled in a drug testing program a month after his meeting with the Commission, it makes Golovkin and Sanchez suspicious about why he hasn’t.
Next month, Golovkin will be ready to start his training camp for his next fight, which could be against Canelo. Last Saturday, Golovkin emerged from an 8-month layoff to destroy Vanes Martirosyan (36-4-1, 21 KOs) in a 2nd round knockout at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. It was easily the best performance by Golovkin since his 2nd round knockout win over Dominic Wade in April 2016.
Martirosyan didn’t use a lot of movement to evade Golovkin’s pressure the way his three previous opponents Canelo, Daniel Jacobs and Kell Brook did. Those three were on the run trying to keep from getting hit and made the fights less than thrilling to watch.
Canelo’s promoters Eric Gomez and Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy have both talked up the negative results for the hair follicle test for their Mexican star, suggesting that it means that his excuse of having tested positive for clenbuterol last February due to him eating contaminated meat in Mexico is the truth. However, in the minds of a lot of people, the hair follicle test still doesn’t prove that Canelo didn’t use clenbuterol purposefully to try gain an advantage over Golovkin. Those same fans also believe Canelo cycled before the Golovkin last September.
“The fact he’s failed to enroll in any kind of testing program puts the fight so much farther away,” Sanchez said to Yahoo Sports News.
With all the heat that Canelo is taking from the boxing fans and media, it’s unclear why he hasn’t enrolled for drug testing, because this is something that you would think he would recognize as being very important to help show the fans that he’s a clean fighter. Sanchez and Golovkin both want to see Canelo being tested, but if he doesn’t get tested until the start of his next training camp, it’s going to look bad in the eyes of a lot of people. It’s unclear why Canelo would want to wait to enroll in an anti-doping program.
De La Hoya told TMZ last month on April 25 that Canelo will be tested ”every day from now until the fight,” but thus far there’s been no word that he’s getting tested. That was close to 2 weeks ago that De La Hoya gave that interview. If Canelo is on vacation, then it would be understandable why he’s not being tested, but there’s no word about him being on vacation.
“Canelo has a lot to prove,” Martirosyan said after the GGG fight Saturday. “I can see why he’s eating that kind of meat. He needs that extra edge.”
It’ll be up to Golovkin whether he’ll still want to take the fight with Canelo in September if he elects not to enroll in a drug testing program.