WBC announces Clenbuterol and WADA’S new standard

By Boxing News - 11/07/2019 - Comments

By Allan Fox: The World Boxing Council announced on Thursday that they’ve adopting a newer threshold standard by WADA for testing for the banned performance substance Clenbuterol for their VADA Clean Boxing program.

The newer thresholds for detecting Clenbuterol is a move by WADA and WBC from penalizing fighters that eat contaminated meat that contains the banned substance.

WADA’s new threshold clears Canelo

The WBC says the new threshold is “confirmation of the innocence of fighters like Saul Canelo Alvarez and Francisco Vargas,” both of which tested positive for Clenbuterol in VADA conducted tests not too long ago.

According to the WBC, two Mexican fighters tested positive for Clenbuterol, but it was BELOW “the WADA standard” in identifying positive tests. In other words, there wasn’t enough of the Clenbuterol substance in the test results for the two fighters to be viewed as having failed WADA’s test. That’s with the newer adjusted standard by WADA.

The fighters that test positive for Clenbuterol below the WADA’s new standard threshold will be given “proper nutrition education” by the WBC Clean Boxing Program. They will be told to avoid eating beef from certain places. Canelo Alvarez is said to have tested positive for Clenbuterol due to him having eaten contaminated beef that contained the banned performance enhancing substance.

The WBC has revealed that former 112-lb world title challenger Julio Cesar Martinez and WBC super bantamweight champion Rey Vargas aren’t at fault with their VADA findings.

WADA’s new threshold created on June 1

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) created a new threshold last summer on June 1, 2019 for detecting the banned PED Clenbuterol.

This is a new measure to protect fighters that unknowingly eat the contaminated meat that contains Clenbuterol, which is a substance that promotes muscle growth. There are countries that are high-risk for having meat that contains the banned Clenbuterol substance.

A lot of boxing fans likely won’t be too happy about WADA’s new standard, as many feel that there’s no way of knowing whether the Clenbuterol got into their system through contamination or not.

Some fans would argue that just because Clenbuterol was discovered in low levels in a boxer’s system, it doesn’t mean that it got there through them eating contaminated meat. It could have been the fighter cycling on the substance, and then getting off of it to avoid detection.

It’s tough for the fighters that have to face an opponent that tests positive for Clenbuterol, but are cleared due to the amounts being below WADA’s newer threshold. Will the fighter still want to face the guy that tested positive with WADA’s newer threshold.

What happens if fighters start testing positive in high numbers for Clenbuterol at the lower threshold? Will the threshold remain where it is now or will they lower it due to the increase of athletes testing positive for it?