Abel Sanchez, the trainer for WBC, IBO, WBA, IBF middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin (37-0-1, 33 KOs), is backing his fighter's doubts about Canelo Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KOs).
Earlier this week, Golovkin created an army of headlines after rejecting Canelo's reason for testing positive for clenbuterol in two separate drug tests administered in February.
Golovkin accused Canelo of being a longtime using of performance enhancing drugs and claimed to have photos which showed evidence of injection marks on Canelo's body.
Canelo and his handlers are very firm that contaminated meat is directly responsible for the test results. Canelo tested negative three times in the month of March.
Meat contaminated with clenbuterol has been an ongoing problem in Mexico - and numerous athletes, including other boxers, have tested positive in recent years.
"You mean to tell me they couldn't pay a couple hundred dollars to get [quality meat] shipped in from elsewhere?" Sanchez asked the LA Times.
"There's been a problem [with tainted Mexican meat] .... If it's [found Canelo was] just eating tainted meat, then I don't think any sanctions should be applied. [Canelo is] stupid and he made a mistake. But if they found it's not just the meat, then it's up to Nevada to determine what is appropriate. And the coaches should be sanctioned also."
Sanchez rejected claims that Golovkin is trying to find a way out of the rematch. Quite the opposite, Sanchez says.
At this point, he says Golovkin is very eager to unload punches on Canelo and he doesn't care what the circumstances are - but he also says its up to the Nevada State Athletic Commission to clear the Mexican boxer.
"Gennady doesn't really care … [Canelo] can be doped up, and he doesn't really care," Sanchez said. "These guys spend 10 weeks in training camp [and] they want to go and hit somebody. Gennady's mind-set is he wants to hit somebody.
"It's up to the authorities to do their due diligence and it's up to us to keep harping on it, and hopefully they find out what it is .… We, as a sport, need to look at this deeper. This sport is intent on destroying itself by some of the things it does to itself."
The rematch is scheduled for May 5 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
