Clenbuterol and Canelo’s excuse

With Canelo Alvarez testing positive for clenbuterol, a banned substance- is the rematch with Gennady Golovkin on Cinco de Mayo still on?

Well, with so much money to be made on both sides, apparently everyone-including GGG’s camp is still eager for the fight to proceed as scheduled.

Alvarez has insisted that his positive results came from the ingestion of contaminated meat which is supposedly prevalent in Mexico.

But what is clenbuterol? OTHERS. Clenbuterol is a drug used to treat asthma. It is considered a steroid and hence, banned under anti-doping regulations. The drug can be abused by athletes to cut fat and build lean muscle mass.

In the US, the administration of clenbuterol to any animal that could be used as food for human consumption is banned. But apparently, it is regularly given to animals in China and Mexico.

Some notable athletes who have been found abusing it and meted punishments were Cyclist Alberto Contador who was banned for two years from professional cycling and Mexican legend Erik Morales who was suspended for two years.

Golden Boy Promotions, who promotes Alvarez claims that according to Daniel Eichner, director of the WADA-accredited lab that conducted the tests, the values are all within the acceptable range for human consumption of contaminated meat.

AMOUNT. I did some research and according to boxingscene.com, Contador was found to have 50 picograms in his system. How much did Canelo have? 600-800 picograms.

Now, I don’t what the hell a picogram is, and I don’t even know what is acceptable , but it would be interesting to consider that in an article that appeared in www.gq.com back in 2016 entitled “The Real-life diet of Canelo Alvarez, Who Can’t Eat Much,” Canelo confided that for protein requirements during training, he partakes of chicken, egg whites, and protein shakes. Beef is not mentioned at all.

When not in training for a fight, he admits to indulging in tacos.

No indication of whether these were beef tacos, but considering that the tests were taken in February of this year, it would have been unwise of him to embark on a taco-binge, so close to training camp.

Well, we are just speculating here. If you consider all the factors, it would also be very stupid of his team to try to knowingly sneak in clenbuterol considering that they were well aware of the stringent testing requirements and risk losing possibly the biggest payday of his career?

But then again, boxing being notoriously the red light district of pro sports, anything is possible and some trainers have been known to try and move heaven and earth just to give their fighter just one small advantage come fight time, no matter how indistinct it may appear to some.

If you were to play the devil’s advocate you could argue that they knew they had a back-up excuse of clenbuterol being widely prevalent in Mexican beef, just in case they got caught.

Well, your guess is as good as mine guys. We should probably start calling Canelo’s excuse as “Clen-but-but-erol”

What I do know is that fight will push through. There’s too much at stake for both fighters and their promoters at this point in time.

LAST ROUNDS. Are on Mabel Longakit and Noemi Lorraine Libor of MTCC Branch 2, Talisay City who are celebrating their birthdays this month. Cheers!