Brandon Rios: Canelo should be suspended and made example of

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose

Brandon ‘Bam Bam’ Rios says the Nevada State Athletic Commission needs to give Saul Canelo Alvarez a suspension to make an example out of him for his 2 failed tests for clenbuterol in getting ready for his rematch against Gennady Golovkin.

The Nevada Commission gave Canelo a temporary suspension, which Rios feels is a slap on the wrist and not what they would do to Golovkin if he was the one that had tested positive twice for the banned performance enhancing substance clenbuterol. Rios sees it as a case of politics boxing that Canelo was given a temporary suspension and not an immediate one. The Nevada Commission is meeting next month on April 10 to make a final decision on Canelo.

At that time they’ll decide if he rates a longer suspension of if he deserves to be cleared. It might be difficult for Canelo to be cleared though, as the Nevada leaves to the fighters to be responsible for what they put inside their body. Canelo is saying he ate contaminated meat in Mexico. If the Commission chooses to say Canelo is responsible for what doing his duty to make sure nothing prohibited enters of his body, then they could chose to suspend him for a longer period of time at the April 10 hearing.

“I think what they’re doing with Canelo is they’re just patting a slap on his wrist, saying, ‘It’s OK, don’t do it again,’ but if you turn the table around and it was Triple G that had tested positive, I think it would have been more of a big deal,” Brandon Rios said to Fighthub about Canelo’s positive tests for clenbuterol. ”It would have been way more of a huge deal. There’s a lot of politics in this s—t. I felt that Triple G won the first one. They gave it a draw, but I felt like he won the first one. But we’ll see how he second one plays out,” Rios said.

Canelo might not get a slap on the wrist for his 2 positive tests for clenbuterol. The Commission might choose to play hardball with him and suspend him. But anything is possible. As soon as you start assuming the Commission will play it strict with Canelo, you have to realize how much money he brings to the city of Las Vegas. It seems hard to believe the Commission would sideline the biggest moneymaker around for 6 months. It’s hard to believe they’ll do that with Canelo.

There may not be a second Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 fight anytime soon if the Commission suspends the Mexican star. If they make an example out of Canelo like Rios says he wants them to, he could be done for the year, although I highly doubt they would be that strict with the No.1 pay-per-view star in North America. That would be like the Nevada Commission suspending Floyd Mayweather Jr. It’s hard to imagine the Commission doing that to Mayweather with the money he brings to Las Vegas for his PPV fights. The Nevada Commission recently gave a boxing license to a novice Conor McGregor and sanctioned a fight between him and Mayweather. It was just unbelievable.

”I think they should follow through with the suspension to put an example,” Rios said about Canelo. “I don’t give a [expletive] how big of a name you are, how much money you make, and how much money you bring to the city, I think they should put an example [of Canelo], because they’ve got to keep boxing clean. If this was anybody else doing that s—t, anybody else like those guys [a group of obscure fighters that Rios pointed to], they would have made a big deal out of it. It would have been a big, horrible deal, and they would have gotten suspended right away. I just think they should make a suspension and stick to it,” Rios said.

Rios seems to think Canelo knowingly used clenbuterol. Rios doesn’t know, and I’m not sure the Nevada Commission will ever know for sure either. if the Commission plays it by the book and says Canelo is responsible for what he puts into his body in terms of food or drugs, then they might elect to suspend him. That move would send a message to a lot of fighters that they need to be extra careful about what they put in their body. If they’re eating meat freely in a country where there’s contaminated meat, then they need to understand that they’re putting their boxing careers at risk if they start consuming the beef. They might have to start purchasing fish, chicken and eggs for their protein source rather than beef.

Canelo is popular enough to continue to make big money even if he’s suspended for six months. Canelo just needs to work on rebuilding his image by agreeing to year-round testing by VADA and testing clean. The fans will forget about this in time. If Canelo beats Golovkin in the rematch, then his career will be right back where it was before he tested positive for clenbuterol.

Rios (34-4-1, 25 KOs) recently suffered his own career setback in losing to Danny Garcia by a 9th round knockout on February 17 at the Mandalay Bay Hotel & Casino, Events Center, in Las Vegas, Nevada. The loss for Rios was his second in his last three fights, and his fourth in his last seven contests. Rios’ career is on the rocks right now. It might take a miracle for Rios to get back to where he was in 2011 when he was a world champion.

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