Boxing heartthrob Canelo Alvarez is in the news today, in a bad way.
The hitter, counting down to his sequel scrap with Gennady Glolovkin, a middleweight showdown which will determine the best man at 160, has been red-flagged for PED usage.
The athlete expressed his surprise at the adverse finding and the doc at the lab which processed the test has an explanation for the presence of the chemical. The banned chemical has a history of showing up, the doctor notes, in samples from athletes who’ve eaten tainted meat.
Here is the statement put out Monday afternoon by his promoter, Golden Boy:
STATEMENT FROM GOLDEN BOY PROMOTIONS
LOS ANGELES (March 5, 2018): As part of the voluntary testing program that Canelo Alvarez insisted on ahead of his May 5 fight, one of his results came back positive for trace levels of Clenbuterol, consistent with meat contamination that has impacted dozens of athletes in Mexico over the last years.
As Daniel Eichner, Director of SMRTL, the WADA-accredited lab that conducted the tests stated in his letter today, “These values are all within the range of what is expected from meat contamination.”
Upon receiving this information, Golden Boy immediately notified the Nevada State Athletic Commission and Gennady Golovkin’s promoter, Tom Loeffler.
As has been planned, Canelo will immediately move his training camp from Mexico to the United States and will submit to any number and variety of additional tests that VADA deems necessary ahead of and after May 5.
Added Canelo: “I am an athlete who respects the sport and this surprises me and bothers me because it had never happened to me. I will submit to all the tests that require me to clarify this embarrassing situation and I trust that at the end the truth will prevail.”
Canelo has tested clean dozens of times over the course of his previous 12 fights.
