NSAC moving Canelo’s hearing to April 18

Boxingnews24.com

By Dan Ambrose

The Nevada Commission has pushed back their hearing with Saul Canelo Alvarez to April 18 to question him about his 2 failed tests for clenbuterol. The Nevada Commission had originally scheduled the hearing for April 10. This is not good news for the Canelo-GGG rematch, which is scheduled for May 5.

Having Canelo’s hearing on April 18, means there is only 17 days before the May 15 fight. A lot of boxing fans are going to hold back from purchasing tickets for the Canelo-GGG 2 fight given that fight looks to be in jeopardy.

Dan Rafael believes the Canelo-GGG fight will be canceled. He notes this complaint from the Nevada Commission about Canelo

“Alvarez’s utilization, ingestion and/or consumption of Clenbuterol, whether intentional or not, constitutes an anti-doping violation,” Rafael said at ESPN.com.

There’s no question that Canelo failed 2 tests for clenbuterol, so if the Commission follows up with their complaint that it’s an anti-doping violation whether it was intentional that he took clenbuterol or not, then he’s going to be suspended. But then again, fighters that have tested positive for clenbuterol in the past could use the contaminated meat excuse to escape punishment, and so why can’t Canelo use the same excuse and be cleared? What was different about the other fighters that could use the contaminated meat excuse from Canelo’s situation?

This does not look good for Canelo. If the Commission cancel the Canelo-GGG fight, there are going to be an awful lot of angry boxing fans at not being able to see the rematch. If the Commission suspends Canelo for 1 year, which is a possibility, then Golovkin won’t get a chance to fight Canelo until next year in 2019.

Well, maybe Canelo and his team can come up with a good argument on April 18 to explain away his 2 positive tests for the PED clenbuterol. Canelo’s excuse that he consumed contaminated beef while in Mexico is excuse that has been used in the past effectively by athletes. That excuse has worked well for others that have tested positive for clenbuterol, so perhaps it can work well for Canelo as well. What will help Canelo is to have the date and the receipts for handy for where he purchased the contaminated meat. If Canelo can present that information to the Nevada Commission, then perhaps they’ll let him off this time.

If Canelo is suspended by the Commission, it should be interesting to see if Ring Magazine strips him of his Ring middleweight title and either leaves it vacant or gives it to GGG without a fight. Will Ring Magazine keep Canelo as their Ring champion even though he’s been suspended by the Commission? It’ll look odd if Canelo still can keep the Ring title.

If the Nevada Commission gives Canelo a suspension, then what’s to stop him from having his promoters at Golden Boy from moving the Golovkin rematch to another state like Texas, California or New York perhaps even Mexico? Unless all the Commissions in the U.S abide by the Nevada Commission’s ruling, Canelo can simply shop for a state that will allow him to still fight. If none of the states will agree to let Canelo fight, he can always take it to Mexico. I’m not saying Canelo should do any of those things, but I think it’s possible that he could if he wanted to, especially if Canelo is given a long 1-year suspension. That’s a lost year of Canelo’s career. Does he do nothing for a year or does he say the heck with this, I’m going to fight in Mexico or Europe or wherever and stay active. Of course, if HBO won’t televise Canelo’s fights on PPV if he’s suspended, then that’s a problem. If HBO is willing to still televise Canelo’s fights, then he could fight in Mexico City at the Azteca Stadium, and HBO could take their crew over there. I don’t think Canelo should do that, but if he wanted to keep from losing a year of his career, it would be something he could do. Canelo has a lot of boxing fans in Mexico. Some fans don’t like him, but they would still go see him fight.

If the Nevada Commission only suspends Canelo for six months, then he can fight Golovkin in September in Las Vegas. Hopefully, Canelo won’t hold a grudge against the Nevada Commission and choose not to ever want to fight in that state again. Canelo needs to be mature about it and realize that the Commission was just doing their job. If Canelo decides to stay away from Nevada if he’s suspended by te Commission, he would only be hurting himself.

Canelo is still training for the May 5th GGG rematch. Hopefully, Canelo keeps training if he receives a 6 to 12-month suspension. He can come into the second fight in great shape and maybe beat Golovkin. It’s bad for GGG, because he was going to get another big payday for the Canelo rematch. Now he’s not going to have that payday, and he’ll probably wind up fighting Demetrius Andrade for one-tenth of the money he would have received fighting Canelo on May 5th.

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