SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ’S eagerly anticipated rematch with Gennady Golovkin now looks to be in serious jeopardy.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) has cancelled a planned hearing on Friday with regards to Canelo’s provisional suspension for two failed drugs tests in February, with director Bob Bennett revealing today that he has filed an official complaint against the Mexican.
A hearing to determine Canelo’s innocence or guilt will instead now take place on 18 April, just over two weeks before he’s scheduled to fight Golovkin in Las Vegas. Either by phone or in person, Canelo must provide an explanation for how he was found to have trace levels of banned substance clenbuterol in his system after two separate tests last month – a finding he and his team have attributed to meat contamination in his homeland.
“After completing my investigation, I made the determination to file a complaint against Mr. Alvarez and set the matter for a disciplinary hearing during the Commission’s regularly scheduled meeting on April 18th,” stated NSAC executive director Bennett. “Therefore, I am cancelling the hearing that was scheduled for Friday, March 30th.”
NSAC regulations state that the standard suspension for a first-time offender found to have tested positive for a banned, performance-enhancing substance like clenbuterol is one year.
The regulations suggest any prospective year-long suspension could be reduced by six months once a guilty fighter complies: “If an unarmed combatant… in this state promptly admits to an anti-doping violation when the only reliable evidence of the anti-doping violation is his or her admission, the commission may reduce, by not more than 50 percent, the period of ineligibility.”
However, Section 39 indicates that NSAC could still let the Mexican superstar off the hook completely, reading: “the commission may, in its discretion and based on the full body of evidence presented to [it], reduce or eliminate a period of ineligibility… for an anti-doping violation committed by an unarmed combatant… if the commission finds one or more mitigating circumstances.”
These “mitigating circumstances” are defined as existing “when the conditions, events or facts accompanying an anti-doping violation reduce or eliminate the culpability of the person…”
MGM Resorts International, meanwhile, are already prepared for a cancelled fight.
Full ticket refunds are available for the 5 May middleweight bout at T-Mobile Arena, an MGM official told the Las Vegas Review-Journal on Wednesday. Fans can get a full refund at the original point of sale.
HBO has removed Golovkin-Canelo II completely from its scheduled programming, as has Fathom Events – the distributor of the pay-per-view in American cinemas.
