Not the Average Joe: A Golden week for boxing tainted by the usual problems

SAUL ‘CANELO’ ALVAREZ, one of boxing’s biggest stars, returns tonight (May 4) to defend his undisputed super-middleweight crown against fellow Mexican Jaime Munguia at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

However, it’s not the fight most of us wanted to see Canelo involved in with many wishing he would have fought undefeated rival David Benavidez instead. That now seems unlikely to happen because on June 15 Benavidez begins his campaign at light-heavyweight against the seasoned Oleksandr Gvozdyk.

Canelo vs. Munguia is, however, a fight that promises to deliver on entertainment. One of the reasons Canelo is such a big star is his boxing prowess and a style which is usually fan-friendly and entertaining to watch. Munguia himself also comes to put on a show. He has a more traditional “Mexican” style than the champion and is rarely in a dull fight. I expect the two to gel pretty well and for the fight to be entertaining.

Alvarez is not quite in his prime anymore and has showed signs of decline. He’s also not quite the wrecking machine he was a few years ago but is still a very good fighter. Munguia is on the other side of his career than Canelo and I believe is on the way up and still improving. He’s not quite at the level of his opponent however and will most likely lose on points in an entertaining battle.

It’s sometimes forgot in the build-up to Canelo fights that in 2018, prior to his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin, he tested positive for trace levels of the performance enhancing drug Clenbuterol. This was brought up this week at a press conference by his former promoter Oscar De La Hoya who now represents Munguia.

In March 2018 Golden Boy Promotions, who promoted Canelo at the time, issued a statement in response to the findings.

“As part of the voluntary testing programme that Canelo Alvarez insisted on ahead of his 5 May 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.”

While De La Hoya’s metaphorical jab was an attempt to ruffle Canelo’s feathers it remains a stain on Canelo’s career and detracts from his achievements and raises questions.

The contaminated meat explanation had also been given by other Mexican athletes in the past who had failed a PED test. Surely someone like Canelo and the team he had around him would have been scrupulous in what he was consuming and made sure any meat was not contaminated.

Whatever the reality may be its ironic that after De La Hoya brought up this topic news came through that one of his own fighters, Ryan Garcia, tested positive for the banned substance Ostarine. This now raises questions over his recent win against Devin Haney but since the story broke Garcia has responded with jokes and conspiracy theories over the positive test.

This reaction is quite reflective of the sport at the moment. In a year where the big fights we want to see are being made the sport is also becoming more and more of a laughingstock with situations like the last few days. It’s not even a shock anymore when you hear of a big name boxer fail a test, who’s going to be next?