Alvarez is a dope cheat, says Golovkin

BIG BEAR, California: World middleweight boxing king Gennady Golovkin accused rival Saul “Canelo” Alvarez of doping on Tuesday, rubbishing the Mexican fighter’s claims that he had failed a recent drugs test due to contaminated meat.

In explosive comments to reporters at his secluded mountain training camp in Big Bear, east of Los Angeles, Golovkin said Alvarez had benefited from preferential treatment throughout his career by authorities in Nevada, where the two men will fight in a much anticipated rematch on May 5.

Alvarez earlier this month was revealed to have tested positive for clenbuterol, which his promoters blamed on consumption of drug-tainted meat in his native Mexico.

The Golovkin and Alvarez camps are awaiting a formal ruling on the case from the Nevada State Athletic Commission, but the fight is expected to go ahead.Golovkin on Tuesday emphasised that he was willing to climb into the ring with Alvarez regardless of the outcome of the Nevada case.

But he pulled no punches in branding Alvarez a dope-cheat, laughing off the Mexican’s claims that clenbuterol had entered his system inadvertently.“Forget Mexican meat,” Golovkin said. “Come on. I told you. This is not Mexican meat. Ask him. Ask his team, his promotion. Everything.

“Canelo’s cheating. They’re using these drugs and everybody’s trying to pretend it’s not happening. And you’re asking again about meat? There’s nothing about meat. Maybe it’s Mexican water.”

Golovkin said he had formed suspicions about Alvarez after last year’s bruising 12-rounder in Las Vegas.“I’m a clean athlete. After the first fight I knew he was not clean,” Golovkin said.

The 35-year-old unbeaten star challenged the Alvarez camp to explain a pill the Mexican appeared to have taken shortly after the televised weigh-in to last year’s fight.Footage of one of Alvarez’s entourage handing him something which he then ingests with a swig of water has been viewed on Youtube. Alvarez can also be seen appearing to take another pill after the weigh-in of a 2016 fight.