Has Canelo Alvarez’s Legacy Been Tarnished?
By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
Almost exactly a year ago, Gennady Golovkin and Saul Alvarez finally met one another in the ring at a packed out T-Mobile arena in Las Vegas. The outcome of the much awaited Championship contest ended up being less than satisfactory and left a bitter taste in the mouths of boxing fans who had anticipated this fight for so long and had parted with their hard earned money to see who would come out on top.
The pair were set to go to war again this year on the 5th May also in Las Vegas, but the bout has now fallen through, which since the revelations in the past few weeks, is hardly surprising and I think that most boxing fans were prepared and almost awaiting the news that this fight wasn’t going to happen after all!
Over the last few months you may have noticed that there hadn’t been quite as much of a build up and the rematch was almost going a little under the radar, which initially for me aroused suspicion. This suspicion was rightly placed as we soon found out that Saul “Canelo” Alvarez had tested positive in his drug tests to a substance called clenbuterol, hence why the fight has now been cancelled.
Despite Alvarez and his team blaming this on contained meat, we have to look at what clenbuterol is and what it does and then look at the fighter who has supposedly been using this performance enhancing drug…
What is clenbuterol & what does it do?
Clenbuterol is a performance enhancing drug, which strips fat whilst maintaining muscle mass and improves a person’s aerobic capacity and body strength.
If you saw pictures of Alvarez before his first fight with GGG, he looked like an absolute monster in training camp, there was one image of him circulating where he actually looked like the Hulk!
Knowing how much weight the Mexican fighter has cut and dropped in the past whilst he is naturally such a big guy, always begs the question of “How does he do that?” – obviously in the Professional ranks, a lot of tricks such as dehydration are used in order to make the weight and despite not agreeing with this personally, I had always assumed that “Canelo” was just doing this but to extreme levels.
However, with the recent test results and after taking a little bit of time to research the drug, I now have to admit (however much it pains me to do so) that I believe that he probably has been using P.E.D’s to make the weight and to try and make up for certain areas that he was seen to be lacking in – mainly that of his aerobic capacity over the later rounds.
Another question which I find myself asking Alvarez’s team too, is if Alvarez’s manager/trainer Chepo Reynoso used to be a butcher; then why is he not sourcing a better quality meat which is not contaminated if that is what they’re blaming it on?
Looking at Alvarez as a boxer and as a fighter; ignoring the recent findings in his drugs tests, he is incredibly talented and skilful, he possesses both speed and explosive power, has developed a great defence and boxing brain over the latter part of his career and in all fairness, he has dedicated his whole life to the sport, having been fighting professionally since the age of 15.
But that brings me back to my biggest question that I now have in my head… Has “Canelo” and all of this controversy, now tarnished his career and his legacy?
Whether it has or not, that will all be dependent upon the opinion of each individual boxing fan, but the next question now is what is next for Alvarez and what will be the verdict of his hearing with the Nevada State Athletic Commission on April 10th?
I guess we’ll have to wait and see…
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