Veteran trainer Ronnie Shields, who works with fighters such as Jermall Charlo, Erislandy Lara and several others, believes Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez has used performance enhancing drugs.
The controversy with Canelo erupted last month, when it was revealed that he came up positive for the banned substance clenbuterol in two separate tests that were taken in February.
He was placed under a temporary suspension by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
Canelo has been ordered to take part in a disciplinary hearing on April 18th in Las Vegas.
He's a facing a one year suspension, but most believe it's going to be reduced to six months.
The situation forced Canelo to withdraw from a planned HBO Pay-Per-View rematch with IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin, which was scheduled for May 5th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Canelo and his handlers have strongly maintained that the positive tests were a direct result of ingesting contaminated meat in Mexico.
There is a ongoing problem in Mexico with farmers using clenbuterol on their live stock to increase mass.
Canelo is far from the first athlete to test positive for the substance - which is exactly the reason why many critics are questioning why such a wealthy athlete would place himself at risk by eating local meat.
Several well-known boxing personalities have stated in the press that they believe Canelo was intentionally using a performance enhancer.
And Shields is one of them.
"Well I’ve heard that a lot of times before and the thing about it is, every fighter has to be accountable for his or her own actions. We in the sport know that we have to take drug tests and you know some of the other fighters from Mexico tested positive for the same thing then why would you go out and buy that meat anyway and take a chance knowing that you have to take drug tests? You can’t just blame it on the meat," Shields told On The Ropes Boxing Radio.
"All you have to do is look at Canelo and you can see it’s suspicious when you look at him. All you have to do is put pictures from about three years ago or two years ago and look at him now and see how big he’s gotten. Look you can see the guy is on drugs, you can see he’s dirty, everybody in the world can see it.
"If the proper people don’t take action against this, then boxing is going to be in serious trouble because they’re allowing these guys to take drugs and then they only want to give him like a six month suspension, what’s that? Six months is nothing. All they are doing is putting it off until another Mexican holiday so they can still make the money, it’s all about the money. If it was anybody else who was lesser known than a guy like Canelo Alvarez, they would be suspended for two years, maybe banned for life."
Last month, Golovkin broke character and verbally attacked Canelo.
He made allegations that Canelo has been using performance enhancers for quite some time - and even alleged that the Mexican star had used them prior to their first meeting in September 2017.
Golovkin says he has proof to back up his claims - with photographs and video in his possession - including evidence which allegedly shows injection marks on Canelo's body, according to GGG.
"I think it gets pushed back to September and I know ‘GGG’ is mad, he’s really mad that he’s saying he has proof that Canelo has been taking drugs. I think if he does have proof he needs to send that to all the boxing organizations and he needs to send it to people in Las Vegas, the commission," Shields said.
"If he does have proof of it and he’s mad as hell, do you pass up a big payday or do you suspend a drug cheat? If you are in this sport you have to help the sport, you can’t worry about the money. Something it’s to do the moral thing that is right in order to help this sport, so we’re going to see what’s going to happen."
2023-10-20 19:59:45
