Breazeale explains how Canelo Alvarez can prove he’s a clean fighter

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox

Heavyweight contender Dominic Breazeale believes that middleweight contender Saul Canelo Alvarez can prove to the boxing world that that he’s not a drug cheat by him being tested frequently all the way up to his May 5th rematch with Gennady Golovkin.

Breazeale thinks the boxing fans will view Canelo as a truthful person and that he was always following the rules in the past.

Canelo (49-1-2, 34 KOs) tested positive at low levels for the performance enhancing drug clenbuterol twice in VADA conducted drug tests last February at the start of his training camp for the rematch against IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs) on the 5th of May at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Canelo’s promoters blamed his positive test for clenbuterol on him eating contaminated meat while in Mexico. This is the same excuse that many other Mexican athletes have used in the past to be cleared from their positive tests.

Unfortunately, there’s no way for the boxing commissions to separate the drug cheats from the fighters that are accidently testing positive for clenbuterol. The commissions are put in the position where they must decide whether to take the word of the Mexican fighters that test positive or suspend them anyway. It’s a bad deal potentially for the fighters like Golovkin that must face the guys that test positive. If Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol not because he ingested contaminated meat but rather because he used the banned drug for a full cycle, then Golovkin will be facing an amped up fighter on May 5th.

“I look forward to it,” Breazeale said to Villian Fy about Canelo-GGG 2 rematch. “I’ll probably be there in person. Canelo is a hell of a fighter. Triple G is a hell of a fighter, but I think this time Triple G comes out and presses the pressure that much more. If Canelo doesn’t stick his feet into the ground, he’s going to be in for a hell of a night,” Breazeale said.

Canelo has always fought in brief spurts during his 12-year career. He throws combinations, and then he moves away and rests before attacking his opponents again. Golovkin let Canelo rest in their first fight by not attacking him hard when he was against the ropes and allowing him to move to his left. Golovkin will need to change that in the rematch. He can’t allow Canelo to rest with his back against the ropes without pummeling him with power shots, and he cannot let him go to his left to escape the pressure and get his rest breaks.

Canelo must stand and fight this time against Golovkin if he’s to keep from getting worn down and taken out. Canelo used movement last time to keep from getting worn down by Golovkin, but it didn’t help him enough to get the win. The judges and the boxing fans saw a fighter trying to avoid Golovkin most of the fight. It didn’t look like Canelo wanted to fight Golovkin. The pressure that Golovkin will be using in the second fight is clearly going to be a lot more than in the first fight. Canelo won’t have the space to move to his left all night long like he did in the first fight, because Golovkin will stay on top of him.

It could be disastrous for Canelo if he tries to move to his left while Golovkin is right next to him. Golovkin will hit Canelo while he’s defenseless as he tries to shift his position along the ropes. Canelo must make a stand in the rematch or else he’s going to be taken out by Golovkin. Canelo might get taken out anyway by Golovkin. But at least if Canelo shows bravery by standing and fighting Golovkin, he won’t be criticized nearly so much afterwards by the boxing public when he loses the fight. It’s better for a fighter to go out on his shield bravely than it is for them to run from the battlefield and be made to look cowardly, which you can argue that Canelo looked last time.

”There have been Mexican fighters that have been caught in the past and used the same situation [using contaminated meat excuse] to get them out of it. A guy like Canelo, I don’t think he’s cheating. I don’t think he’s driven on that. He’s got too much heart, too much chin, and too much boxing skills to go to the dark side. I think that’s a terrific way to go about it. To retest multiple times and even throughout camp all the way up to 30 days before the fight. Blood tests, whatever have you, to prove to the general public and boxing fans that you haven’t been cheating, that you have been truthful, and that you’ve been honoring the system from day one,” Breazeale said.

Breazeale’s advice for Canelo to prove that he’s a clean fighter probably won’t do much to convince the hardcore boxing fans that he’s innocent. I think that it’s too late for that. Canelo tested positive and the boxing fans have already made up their minds about it. But for the Golovkin fight to go ahead for May 5th, Canelo can make sure the fight happens by testing negative in all the tests by VADA.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission will have their justification to let the Canelo-GGG fight continues for May 5th, if Canelo continues to test negative. He’s had three negative tests for clenbuterol in March. If all it takes for Canelo to still be allowed to fight Golovkin on May 5th is for him to test negative, then he’ll get that fight if he stays clean. But he’s not going to change the mind of the boxing fans that now see him as a drug cheat. It’s going to take years of clean testing for Canelo to change the minds of those boxing fans, and he’s going to need year-round testing to really prove that he’s not a drug cheat.

The way the testing is setup right now, fighters like Canelo could potentially use banned PEDs when they’re not in training camp, because there’s no drug testing during that time. The drug testing only takes place in the 8 weeks before each fight. If Canelo agrees to be tested year-round by VADA, he can show the boxing world that he’s a clean fighter 100 percent of the time, and not just in the 8 weeks before his fights. It’s too bad that boxing doesn’t have a situation where fighters are tested all the time.

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