LIAM SMITH is the last man to have suffered a knockout defeat to Canelo Alvarez. The Mexican superstar, ahead of his May 5 rematch with Gennady Golovkin, has been revealed to have tested positive for traces of clenbuterol, which has been attributed to eating contaminated meat in Mexico. Smith for one fears that Canelo won’t face an appropriate penalty.
“I think it’s getting beyond a joke now and more needs to be done. You fail a drug test, if it’s legit, you should be banned and that’s that,” Smith told Boxing News.
“I think he’s failed a drug test,” Liam continued. “You’ve seen Francisco Vargas, who my brother [Stephen] fought last year, he failed a drug test for the same thing and he said it was meat, so with Canelo being from Mexico and supposedly a clever man, a superstar athlete in his own right, he shouldn’t put himself in that situation to eat that sort of meat. You know what you’re putting in your body. With him being Mexican himself and with him knowing about that meat situation before then I think he should know.”
An athlete is ultimately responsible for what is detected in his body, even if a substance is consumed inadvertently.
Smith formerly held the WBO super-welterweight title, which he lost to Alvarez. “Regardless of our situation, it [cheating in boxing] is just wrong in every sense. Like I’m saying, I’m not crying over [his result against Canelo], I don’t think it would have changed the result regardless. It’s still not nice to know,” Smith said. “I’ve lost to him and I’ll take the loss on the chin. I’ve lost to a very, very good fighter.
“It’ll all be scrutinised now I think. I know they’re saying they only found traces of it but clenbuterol, that’s a performance enhancing drug isn’t it? It should be scrutinised properly and it should be dealt with the way other fighters are dealt with.”
But rather than a punishment being administered, he’s concerned the incident will not be addressed in the proper manner. Liam said, “We’ve seen with Vargas last year, the fight still went ahead. I’m telling you now I believe the Golovkin fight will still go ahead.”
Smith firmly believes the sport needs to take strong action against doping. “You don’t want a cheat in the sport you’re in and that’s that,” he said.
