?I just realized that these people, people like that, are terrorists, they are killing the sport?People like that, they have to be in prison??
There?s enough plausible deniability in the whole Canelo Alvarez affair to demand, at the very least, a degree of guarded neutrality. Testing positive for trace amounts of a banned substance three months before a fight?in a country known to have beef contaminated with that substance?when you?ve never tested positive for anything before? That?s hardly a ?close the books, send him straight to hell? scenario. In a boxing world where there?s really not much importance placed on ?real? PEDs testing and where the best available testing option is that which is purely voluntary, it?s hard to proclaim ANYONE innocent or guilty.
But one can see where Gennady Golovkin may think otherwise.
On Tuesday, the three-belt middleweight champ raged against Alvarez, Alvarez?s promoter Golden Boy, the Nevada State Athletic Commission, and all of boxing over Canelo?s ?cheating.?
As this writer posted at his other gig on FightHype.com:
?Again with Mexican meat? Come on,? Golovkin said on Tuesday, referring to Team Alvarez?s attempt to explain testing positive for clenbuterol in February on eating contaminated Mexican beef.
?I told you, it?s not Mexican meat,? Golovkin insisted. ?This is Canelo. This is his team. This is his promotion … Canelo is cheating. They?re using these drugs, and everybody is just trying to pretend it?s not happening.?
Golovkin would go on to say that he believes that Alvarez was dirty the first time they met last September when they battled to a draw.
?It was pretty obvious when (Alvarez?s) muscles were all (enlarged) … and with the traces of injections, which were visible,? Golovkin said through a translator. ?I can talk about Oscar De La Hoya [Alvarez?s promoter], too. He is also not clean. He?s dirty.?
During Golovkin?s interaction with media at his Big Bear Lake, California training camp, he also accused the Mexican star of popping pills and claims to have doctors? verification that Alvarez was less than clean.
To add fuel to the fire, he continued to rally against perceived injustice by slamming pretty much the entire sport as part of a pro-Canelo conspiracy to protect the Mexican.
?He proves he gets benefits from everyone and he can get away with it. The commentators, commission, doping commission?this is a very bad business, (it?s) not sport. Check him on a lie detector and then we can find out everything.
?Looking at the commission, they all put their head down to avoid the eye contact,? Golovkin continued. ?They don?t want to watch. I reviewed the fight again and I just realized that these people, people like that, are terrorists, they are killing the sport?People like that, they have to be in prison.?
Eric Gomez, president of De La Hoya?s Golden Boy Promotions, issued a response to Golovkin?s accusations, saying that the Kazakh KO artist ?doesn?t sound like a confident fighter? and may be ?trying to find a way out? of their schedule May 5 rematch. He also raised the possibility of legal action for defamation.
Whether Golovkin is justified in saying what he did or understandably off the rails is beside the point at this moment in time for a fighter training for his biggest bout. Golovkin?s anger, frustration, and obvious fixation on injustices done to him is a sign that he is mentally rattled by this whole situation. From his words and those of his own promoter, Tom Loeffler, it?s clear that Golovkin has been inundated with various shades of conspiracy theories and support from fans and well-wishers who further stoked the flames of paranoia
?People were sending him videos and photos, and they said he should ask the commission what these photos and videos are,? Loeffler told ESPN. ?People were telling him to get the commission to clarify what it was.?
Ideally, this is where trainer Abel Sanchez would step up and rein his fighter in, maybe try his best to cut him off from the flies in the outside world buzzing in his head. A fighter can?t work on a gameplan when pushed to paranoia and buried in a ?whole world is against me? mentality.
If the strategy is to prime Golovkin for an all-or-nothing push to knock Canelo out, then maybe this breeding of a fistic martyr complex might have some validity. Maybe. But it?s generally not a good idea to allow the weight of the world to be crammed inside your fighter?s head as he prepares for a major fight.
Could we be getting the first glimpses of a Gennady Golovkin implosion? As much as fans and media would like to see ?Triple G? as some sort of superhero, the reality is that he?s just a regular human being who can be distracted, bogged down, and psyched out. If his team won?t put him back on the rails, then he?d be wise to shrug off the self-righteous rage and conspiracy theories, himself, and just go about preparing for the fight.
