THE RETURN
They’re back for more. Are you?
WHAT the first Gennady Golovkin versus Saul “Canelo” Alvarez showdown lacked was a villain. The build-up was respectful. Close-up it was fascinating to listen to the trainers and fighters and associates discuss their opposite numbers. But unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough to push it into the mainstream. It wasn’t foulmouthed. There were no promises of hospitalisation. No daft side plot concocted to take the attention away from what really mattered – the fight itself.
What followed was enthralling, the action and skills on display were high quality yet, when one compares to the Floyd Mayweather-conor Mcgregor pantomime two weeks before, it struggled to generate the attention it deserved. And then, wallop. Adelaide Byrd drops the mother of all bad scorecards and runs for cover while Canelo Alvarez, suddenly the villain of the piece, is left to explain why he deserved the draw. Instant controversy, instant attention. Instant bad guy.
To say Canelo embraced his new role and ran with it would be an understatement. His dark side has increased dramatically since those heady days when being the right side of a bad decision was his only crime.
The rematch that comes seven months after clenbuterol was found in the Mexican’s system now has the story and subplots to go to market in a big way. Even WBA boss, Gilberto Mendoza Jnr, admitted the failed drug test would make the rematch even bigger. While sadly true, it’s still a dreadful comment for the head of a sanctioning body to make. Talk about a green light for drug cheats to roam free.
Meanwhile, Golovkin is the good guy. The clean guy. The whiter than white guy. The guy who was shafted out of victory the first time, the guy who now has to beat a perceived drug cheat. It’s now common opinion that if Alvarez were to win the return, it would be terrible for the sport of boxing.
But is that necessarily true? Isn’t the damage already done? Boxing should never have put itself in such a position in the first place.
But it has, and it will continue to do so, for as long as it’s allowed to do so. In the same way that a nightclub is shut down when too many punters are being wheeled out after taking too many drugs, boxing – particularly in Las Vegas – should really have proved it had its house in order before opening its doors again.
How much should we blame Canelo? Did he personally wine and dine Adelaide Byrd beforehand and make her favour him on the cards? The drug issue is harder to excuse but it’s doubtful, if he did have a history of taking performance enhancing drugs, that he took them thinking he was the only one. Don’t for one second believe that the guys getting caught are the only ones taking them. Very often the guys getting caught are the ones who are trying the hardest to keep up. Athletes should unquestionably make the final call on what goes in their system, but there’s plenty of shady characters in the sport who make a handsome living helping the stars to not only break the law, but to keep doing so. Canelo is far from blameless, but boxing’s performance-enhancing drug culture is yet to be exposed in the same way. It should be. Dig deeper and you will find a direct line to the culprits who got boxing in this fine mess in the first place.
The ideal scenario for many is that Golovkin walks through a weakened Canelo. But perhaps a Canelo victory would also prove that drugs are not necessary to achieve the top results. While Alvarez may not have been punished severely by the authorities, his reputation is in tatters.
Behind closed doors it’s unlikely he’s revelling in being the villain. For being made the poster boy for all that is wrong with the sport while the real criminals stay out of sight.
All we can hope for, with the rematch upon us, is no more controversy. And we need the right winner to be crowned, whoever that might be.
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