By Dan Ambrose: Promoter Oscar De La Hoya is fully convinced that Saul Canelo Alvarez’s career won’t be forever tainted after he tested positive on two occasions last February for the performance enhancing substance clenbuterol while preparing for his May 5th rematch with Gennady Golovkin.
De La Hoya says that once Canelo beats Golovkin in “spectacular fashion” on September 15 in their rematch, the fans will forget about his two positive tests for clenbuterol. Unfortunately, some boxing fans will think that a “spectacular” win for Canelo over Golovkin was a product of him using PEDs. That’s the more likely scenario. Once a fighter tests positive for drugs, some fans think that they’re going to continue to use the drugs in the future. The fans will also suspect that the fighter has been using drugs from the start of their careers.
The fight was canceled after Canelo came up positive for clenbuterol twice. Canelo says the positive tests were the result of him eating contaminated beef in Mexico. De La Hoya backs him up with this excuse. Never the less, a lot of boxing fans believe that Canelo intentionally used clenbuterol to try and get an edge against Triple G for the May 5th rematch. What’s more a lot of boxing fans think Canelo was using PEDs for the first fight with GGG last September. Those fans point to Canelo’s recent loss of size and definition as a signal that he’s no longer using PEDs.
”I’m not concerned one bit because this is totally different. Sugar Shane Mosley and Fernando Vargas tested positive for steroids performance-enhancing drugs, and this is totally different,” De La Hoya said about some boxing fans feeling Canelo’s career is tainted due to his positive drug tests.
It’s true that the boxing public didn’t remember Vargas and Mosley in a negative light for testing positive for PEDS. But as far as Canelo goes, he’s going to need to find success against talented fighters like Golovkin and not depend on controversial scoring to avoid losses. Canelo should have lost his fight against GGG last September in the view of a lot of boxing fans. Canelo’s highly muscular physique at the time of his fight with Golovkin last year had a lot of people suspecting that something wasn’t right. Canelo’s subsequent two positive tests for clenbuterol came as no surprise to a lot of boxing fans. For Canelo’s career not to be tainted, he’s going to need to show the fans that he can beat the top fighters in the 160 pound division. It won’t be good if Golden Boy feeds him beatable opposition like Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan, David Lemieux, Ryota Murata, Jason Quigley, Billy Joe Saunders, Rob Brant and Demetrius Andrade. If Golden Boy is going to continue to put Canelo in with welterweights, then they need to have him move back down to 154, because it’s look bad if fighters have to move up two weight divisions to fight him like we saw with Amir Khan.
”This was Clenbuterol that was in meat, in tainted meat. So, look, everybody in Mexico knows about the big problem they have with Clenbuterol in their meat, and in Mexico he’s a bigger star than ever,” De La Hoya. ”So I don’t think his career will be tainted whatsoever. I think once he beats Golovkin in a spectacular fashion, then people will forget about it here in the states.”