Interesting reaction to the Canelo situation... as per usual the weird haters are strangely jubilant about it, some blissfully ignorant of what Clenbuterol is(it's not a steroid) and why it would be used. Others are claiming VADA themselves are lying(what?) about their statement it was "trace levels" of the substance consistent with meat contamination from Mexico(are they feeding it to their cattle?) stating different figures seemingly plucked from thin air "it was 1000mg" and so on, sure thing mr armchair expert we'll all take your word on that.
It almost seems like some of those Canelo haters/Golovkin fanboys don't want the rematch with their reactions, the thing is a lot of people have since rewatched the fight and like I predicted besides the most ardent GGG fans most now say it really could have been one round up for either fighter so a draw is not at all surprising. After rewatching round 9 with the revealing slowmos, I could easily have him up a round but a draw feels more right as there wasn't much between them all night bar a couple of rounds for each fighter (7th GGG 10th Canelo IMO were their strongest)... Either way a draw was anything but a robbery(I've since read that Max Kellerman scored it the same as me as I suspected by some of his post match interview comments and he loves GGG "big drama"), the real question mark was over Byrds card. With all that said how can anyone who saw that fight not want to see the rematch? It needs one, do they like boxing or is it just a popularity contest for some? The hatred towards Canelo even in the build up to the Golovkin fight seemed weird to me, I remember someone claiming I must hate GGG just because I happened to rate Canelo very highly and scored the match a draw... and I still feel the same way he's a phenomenal boxer, the criticism he receives from Mexican fight fans(started way before the GGG fight was on the cards) is because of the style he adopted as his career progressed(possibly around the Mayweather fight?)... simply put they don't like Mexican fighters who don't stand and trade.
As for this banned substance I'm not sure weather he was using it to cut weight or it was just in the meat but either way I think he should leave golden boy now for the sake of his legacy, he clearly doesn't need to cheat and he really will fight anyone(he has it all youth, natural ability, the chin, spirit and the athleticism) if he was advised to use it then that was a completely unnecessary risk, if it was contaminated meat they clearly aren't looking out for him well enough. I just think he'd be much better off without the cloud of doubt caused by Golden Boy over everything he does, it's a real shame it has to be like that.
Edit: Having thought about it, it is hard to defend Canelo on this because it occurred to me that if this has happened before with numerous Mexican athletes then they can't be that surprised... The cynic in me from an objective viewpoint says perhaps they deliberately loaded up on Mexican meat to gain an advantage that way, if it really was the meat they couldn't be accused of lying but it would still be on the spectrum of cheating somewhere along the line but how much of an advantage would you gain that way? From further reading it is indeed not a steroid but although it is often used to cut weight, it has a side effect of a slight increase in skeletal muscle which doesn't sound like it's worth the risk to me, especially as those test subjects were injected with the stuff rather than having trace amounts in meat but maybe cutting weight that way and slight gains in skeletal muscle is enough grounds for the suspension to stand as it's still cheating. I still think there needs to be a clear distinction between steroid cheats and the other banned substances, there are different levels of cheating and steroids are almost in a class of their own.
As an aside it's clear certain promoters and boxing mouth pieces are making the most of this situation. It's worth remembering Canelo is the biggest active superstar in Boxing making the most dosh so take comments from those with their own interests in mind with a pinch of salt. I'm looking at you Hearn you've had to deal with comments from those who doubt AJ's integrity on the steriods front and you Frank Warren... who has a fighter on his books who tested positive for actual steroids in Fury(who claimed it was from some offal he ate?) which is a step worse than the Canelo situation.
