By Keith Idec

If Francisco Vargas would’ve tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug closer to their June 4 fight, Orlando Salido wouldn’t have been as willing to move forward with it.

Vargas tested positive for clenbuterol during a test taken by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association on April 21 in Mexico. Vargas and his manager, Ralph Heredia, maintained during a conference call Wednesday that the small amount of clenbuterol found in Vargas’ blood came from eating contaminated meat in his native Mexico.

Sean Gibbons, Salido’s manager, wouldn’t say during the conference call if he believed Vargas’ version of how he tested positive. Gibbons did acknowledge that the timing of Vargas’ positive test convinced Salido and the Mexican contender’s team to remain committed to a super featherweight title fight many boxing experts expect to be a highly entertaining slugfest two weeks from Saturday night in Carson, California (HBO).

“First of all, I ran it all by Orlando,” Gibbons said. “Orlando’s fighting, I’m not. I’m not the guy to get hit in the head. We felt that again, like I said earlier, it all came up far enough out that if it was something going on, it was out of his system, it won’t give Vargas any more [advantage] like it would the week of the fight. If you come across something the week of the fight, and something was being used, that could’ve caused a big problem.

“But everything happened far enough out that Orlando wanted to go through with the fight. I left it all up to Orlando. He’s the one putting his life on the line. He’s the one that gets in the ring. He’s the one taking the punches. So he’s comfortable with where everything was at.”

Eric Gomez, senior vice president for Golden Boy Promotions (Vargas’ promoter), said during the conference call that Salido was not paid more money to stay in the fight after Vargas tested positive.

The 31-year-old Vargas (23-0-1, 17 KOs) will make the first defense of the WBC world super featherweight title he won by stopping Japan’s Takashi Miura (30-3-2, 23 KOs) in the ninth round of his last fight, November 21 in Las Vegas. The 35-year-old Salido (43-13-3, 1 NC) will attempt to become a 130-pound title-holder for the second time in a 12-round fight HBO will televise from StubHub Center as the main event of a “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader.

 Interestingly, it was Vargas who insisted on VADA testing before agreeing to defend his title against Salido because of Salido’s PED history. In November 2006, Salido tested positive for nandrolone, an anabolic steroid, after defeating Robert Guerrero by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder to win the IBF featherweight title in Las Vegas.

“That’s not really my concern,” Salido said through a translator regarding Vargas’ positive PED test. “That’s why we have a commission. That’s why they do the testing that they do. All I know is I’m getting ready for the fight. They tell me the fight is on, and I’m gonna fight him. It doesn’t matter to me. That’s why we have a commission to take care of those things.”

Questions regarding Vargas’ positive PED test consumed much of the hour-long conference call and Gibbons acknowledged “it’s a very serious thing.” Salido and his handlers would prefer, however, to shift the attention toward what should be a highly competitive, compelling fight.

“We don’t wanna waste anymore time on this,” Gibbons said. “We’re here to fight. Orlando’s here to fight. He ain’t worry about [the steroid test] or whatever. We’re just here to fight. We’ll move past this and let’s just go have a great fight. We’re past this now.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.