By Dan Ambrose: World Boxing Council president Mauricio Sulaiman believes that the winner of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin rematch will be considered the best middleweight in the world. Moreover, Sulaiman also feels that Canelo won’t be suspected of using performance enhancing drugs after he faces Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KOs) in their rematch next month on September 15.
Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol twice last February, which resulted in his May 5 rematch with Golovkin being canceled. The Nevada State Athletic Commission suspended Canelo for six months despite his assertion that he had eaten tainted beef that contained the clenbuterol.
It might take more than Canelo testing negative for performance enhancing drugs for the Golovkin rematch for boxing fans to forget about his past two positive tests for clenbuterol. One fight isn’t going to make fans forget about Canelo testing positive for the substance earlier this year. The casual fans probably won’t be aware that Canelo ever tested positive for clenbuterol. It’s the knowledgeable boxing fans that follow the sport that will decide whether they view Canelo as a clean fighter or not. Sulaiman might be a little too optimistic as far as him thinking the fans will forget about Canelo’s past positive tests for clenbuterol after just one fight. That’s a little too hopeful on Sulaiman’s part.
“Win or lose ‘Canelo’ is free of any question of doping and if he wins the fight will be in his own right,” Sulaiman said to ESPN Deportes. “Much will be at stake for the [Canelo vs. Golovkin] fight, because the eyes of the world will be there on the 15th and the winner will be considered the best fighter in the world in all divisions, winning the highest honor will be” Sulaiman said.
The winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight won’t be viewed as the best fighter in boxing. There are too many good fighters in the sport for the winner of the Canelo-GGG 2 fight to be seen as the best. The winner of that fight might be seen as the best in the 160 pound division by some boxing fans, but that’s as far as it goes. Even saying the winner of the Canelo vs. GGG 2 rematch would be a huge leap, because there are some good fighters in the division that they would still need to beat for them to be considered the best in that weight class. The winner would need to deal with Jermall Charlo, and the winner of the Daniel Jacobs vs. Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Billy Joe Saunders vs. Demetrius Andrade fights before they could be called the best fighter in the middleweight division. So we’re probably talking about the Canelo-Golovkin 2 winner needing to win three more fights in the middleweight division before they’re seen as the best fighter at 160. There’s also WBA ‘regular’ champion Ryota Murata who would need to be beaten before an eventual top guy could be named. It’s doubtful that the winner of the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight will fight all of those guys. It would be in their best interest to face all of them, but they likely won’t take all those fights.
Golovkin will defend his IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight titles against Alvarez on September 15 on the Mexican Independence Day holiday on HBO pay-per-view at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Golovkin’s trainer Abel Sanchez doesn’t seem to agree with the WBC president Sulaiman about Canelo’s 2 past positive drug tests being forgotten about the boxing public. Sanchez thinks the fans will remember the positive tests by Canelo for the remainder of his career, and he blames his handlers for him testing positive.
”Because of the first one, there’s going to be a lot more scrutiny of the judges, and not only the judges but also the [Nevada State Athletic] Commission to make sure it’s a fair decision and an even playing field,” trainer Abel Sanchez said to Mayweather Boxing Channel. ”The magnifying glass is going to be on them. I think they understand what went wrong last time. I think there won’t be any controversy. I haven’t seen anybody, including Canelo, dominate Golovkin. The day I see someone dominate Golovkin is the day I say he’s getting old,” Sanchez said.
To be sure, the scrutiny is going to be on the judges, referee and he Nevada Commission for the Canelo vs. Golovkin II rematch. Given how off the scoring was in the first fight, it’s clear that the judges’ scores are going to be closely looked at for the second fight. With many boxing fans feeling that Canelo was given a gift 12 round draw that he didn’t deserve last September in the previous fight against Golovkin, it’s going to put a lot of attention on the judges to make sure they don’t turn in a set of scores that are off the charts bad. For the rematch, the scoring by the three judges needs to resemble what took place during the fight. It’ll hurt the sport if either fighter is given a victory or a draw that they don’t deserve. Even if the fight does appear to be a draw in the rematch, the judges need give one of the two fighters the victory because the boxing public won’t tolerate another 12 round draw. When fans spend their hard-earned money to see a fight, they don’t want to see a draw. That’s the same for the NFL as well. Fans don’t want to pay to see games that end in a tie.
”I think it pissed a lot of people off, and a lot of people are bad-mouthing Canelo,” Sanchez said about Canelo having tested positive twice for clenbuterol this year. ”The fact of the matter is he ate the meat and tested positive. Now he has to pay the price. You can’t make those types of mistakes. You’re going to be talked about for the rest of your career. I think it damages the people that allowed him [Canelo] to do that. There was controversy in our fight where he jumped on and jumped off [the scale at the weigh-in], and they called the weight. That’s a little unfair to everyone. I don’t care if he’s a cash cow. It should be fair and even. The Commission that is in charge should make sure it’s even for everyone so that there’s no stain on the sport,” Sanchez said.
Canelo appeared to stand on the scale long enough for his weight to be checked in the first fight. I don’t think there’s any controversy surrounding Canelo’s weigh-in for the fight. The controversy was the scoring of the fight by two of the judges that scored it 114-114 and 118-110 for Canelo. Those scores weren’t agreed on by the vast majority of the boxing fans. There were obviously some fans that agreed with the fight being scored a draw at 114-114 and 10 rounds 2 in Canelo’s favor, but they were in the small minority. Most fans appeared to see Golovkin winning the fight. They had GGG winning by an 8 rounds to 4 and 9 rounds to 3 score. Canelo did well in rounds 1 and 2 in the eyes of most fans, but then he grew fatigued and was on the run for the remainder of the fight except for brief periods in the last three rounds. Golovkin did most of the fighting, and he was the one that was coming forward looking to force Canelo to slug with him. The rematch will likely play out the same way with Canelo moving a lot, fighting in brief spurts, and Golovkin doing the hard work.