GGG hogs HBO poster, Martirosyan not shown

Boxingnews24.com

By Jeff Aranow

HBO just released their fight poster for the May 5th Gennady Golovkin vs. Vanes Martirosyan contest, and the only one that can be seen on the poster if GGG. Martirosyan’s photo isn’t on the poster, and his name is even smaller than the word ‘Live.’ Martirosyan’s name is at the very bottom of the poster. They might as well have not included Martirosyan’s name, because it’s completely out of sight.

Just looking at the poster, it looks like Golovkin will be fighting all by himself on May 5 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Whoever produced the poster for HBO, they seemed to have forgotten that this is supposed to be a fight. Martirosyan should rate at least a small photo on the HBO poster. This is supposed to be a sporting event, not a concert with Golovkin. Not having Martirosyan on the poster minimizes his role in the fight.

Martirosyan (36-3-1, 21 KOs) is a good enough fighter for him to be on the poster. You can argue that Martirosyan is a better fighter than many of Golovkin’s opponents he’s fought during his career. Martirosyan is at least in the top 3 of the best fighters that Golovkin will have faced during his career. The only guys that is better than Martirosyan on GGG’s resume is Saul Canelo Alvarez and Daniel Jacobs. I would favor Martirosyan over David Lemieux, Kell Brook, Dominic Wade, Willie Monroe Jr., Martin Murray, Daniel Geale, Marcos Antonio Rubio, Curtis Stevens and Matthew Macklin.

Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) was the B-side for his fight with Saul Canelo Alvarez last September on HBO PPV, but he at least had his photo on the poster for the fight. Martiroyan, 31, is nowhere to be seen on the poster. That shows clearly that the creator of the poster doesn’t feel that Martirosyan’s photo isn’t as much of value as Golovkin’s. It doesn’t look good that Martirosyan’s picture isn’t on the poster. If this was a Super Bowl poster, it would look odd if it were picture of one team alone and the name of the other team in small letters near the bottom of the poster, as we see with Martirosyan’s name.

Martirosyan is the replacement opponent that was picked out by Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler to take the place of Saul Canelo Alvarez, who pulled out of the fight 3 weeks before the contest. Martirosyan is a highly ranked junior middleweight, and he was willing to take the fight with GGG on short notice, even though he’s ranked No.1 by the World Boxing Council at 154 and seemingly next in line for WBC junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo.

In other news, a lot of fans are viewing Canelo’s negative test results on the Nevada State Athletic Commission requested hair follicle test as proof that he really was clean for clenbuterol. Canelo had previously tested positive twice for clenbuterol during a urinalysis conducted by VADA last February.

The Nevada Commission made an unusual request to have Canelo’s hair tested for clenbuterol. The Commission had never done that before for a fighter that had tested positive. The Nevada Commission had Canelo’s hair sample sent to an independent lab in Utah to have a hair follicle test conducted.

Unfortunately, Canelo has already been suspended by the Commission for six months as of last week. If the Commission wants to start using hair follicle tests for determining guilt for clenbuterol, then they’re going to need to re-write their rules. Right now, the Commission sees any positive test as reason enough to suspend the fighter.

It’ll be interesting to see whether the Nevada Commission decides give fighters a pass when they test positive for clenbuterol. If they use the same tainted meat excuse and then ask for a hair follicle test, then they too can say they were clean. You must wonder whether the hair follicle test is accurate enough to determine whether a fighter has been cheating or not.

Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez appears to believe that Canelo has been vindicated due to the negative results from his hair follicle test. The thing is, Canelo is still suspended until August 17 by the Commission unless they want to re-write their rules and clear the Mexican star. That’ll look weird though, because the Commission didn’t have hair follicle tests done for other fighters in the past. It’ll look like the Commission is giving the highly popular Canelo preferential treatment.

“From the beginning, Canelo has insisted that he accidentally ingested clenbuterol from eating tainted meat,” Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said to ESPN.com.“The fact this NSAC-required hair follicle test came back entirely negative for any traces of clenbuterol should lay to rest any suspicion that he was intentionally taking a banned substance…He thanks all of his fans for sticking by him and believes this test proves once and for all that he is a clean fighter.”

Gomez is acting like the hair follicle test has proven that Canelo didn’t use clenbuterol. The problem is Canelo tested positive for the substance with his urine test, and his physique looked entirely different for the Golovkin fight last September than it did in his previous fights. It’s nice that the Nevada Commission asked for Canelo’s hair to be tested, but that doesn’t take away the fact that he tested positive for clenbuterol for the urine tests. So, which tests should the Commission believe – the usual urine or the hair follicle test? Canelo is still suspended and many in the boxing public still views him as having used clenbuterol to gain an advantage over a very tough opponent in Golovkin.

Canelo needs to be tested right now during his suspension up until he starts training camp. If Golden Boy wants to prove to the boxing public that Canelo is a clean fighter, it would be a clever idea for them to make sure he gets tested during the last 4 months of his suspension rather than letting it go and waiting for VADA to start testing him when he begins training camp for his September 15 rematch with Golovkin.

Canelo says his positive test for clenbuterol came from him eating contaminated meat. The Nevada Commission makes the fighter responsible for what they put in their body. So, if they go out on the street and eat contaminated meat from a vendor, then it’s their fault. Canelo needs to make sure that this doesn’t become a habit with him, because if he keeps testing positive for clenbuterol, it won’t matter how many hair follicle tests he passes, the boxing public are going to see him as a drug cheat, especially if his body is looking lean and totally unlike how he used to look in the past.

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