Our sport must come down hard on Canelo... drugs in boxing can kill
SAUL ALVAREZ comes before the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Wednesday to explain two positive tests for a performance-enhancing drug.
My own view is that any fighter testing positive for substances of this kind, in this case Clenbuterol, should be banned for life.
We are not talking cycling or athletics here. In boxing, augmented physical performance can be fatal. Someone could be killed by the enhanced power of an opponent.
Alvarez has denied responsibility. He says he ate contaminated meat, an excuse used before in his native Mexico. I take my hat off to the Commission for waving off that explanation and imposing a temporary suspension.
That should harden after the hearing. The usual punishment is a ban of between nine months to two years. One year is standard, reducing to six months with good behaviour.
In my view only a zero tolerance approach will work, but boxing is a business and Alvarez sells an awful lot of tickets and pay-per-view hits. What is clear is Gennady Golovkin will be fighting a different opponent next month. In the long term I would love to see him in the ring with Jermall
Charlo (right), who
I believe is the future of the middleweight division.
Charlo fights for the WBC interim title next week against Hugo Centeno Jr in Brooklyn in only his second fight at the weight.
Charlo is one of the most improving fighters in the world. How he made 154lb I’ll never know. In his first fight at 160 he went through Jorge Sebastian Heiland in three rounds. He is an aggressive, come-forward fighter, an attacking, no-nonsense banger, just the kind of fighter I like. I would argue people are less fearful of Golovkin since Daniel Jacobs and Canelo pushed him, not that the latter deserved the draw. They are all queuing up for a pop at GGG, including our own Billy Joe Saunders (left, bottom). I like Saunders, he’s tricky and can box, but ultimately he does not carry sufficient power to keep him off. Charlo does. He is a formidable puncher.
He also has a bit of lip, which I don’t mind if you can back it up.
Ultimately my money is on him to take over the middleweight mantle from GGG. Everybody will be talking about him, not Canelo, over the next 12 months. Amen to that.