The silence has been deafening.
Compared to the monstrous tidal wave of public outrage dedicated to Saul “Canelo” Alvarez testing positive for clenbuterol in February there’s been just barely a trickle of dialogue devoted to the fighter’s recent, possibly exonerating, hair follicle testing.
On March 29, Alvarez had his hair tested at the WADA-accredited Sports Medicine Research & Testing Laboratory in Salt Lake City. According to the results, which were apparently shared with ESPN, Alvarez came back clean—something which seems to destroy the case for doping and support the fighter’s claim of accidental ingestion via contaminated meat.
In his coverage of this story, ESPN’s Dan Rafael reached out to Dopeology.org and got this statement from the authoritarian doping in sports site: "Clenbuterol, like many other substances, accumulates in very small amounts in hair follicles. If an athlete has taken the substance over a period of time in the past, his/her hair test might return a positive for a period of six months or longer. Conversely, if the clenbuterol resulted from a single incident, in which the subject had eaten meat for example, a hair test would almost certainly be negative."
Mind you, hair follicle testing is not 100% reliable at this point and I have not, personally, seen the Alvarez hair test results. But there’s no reason to doubt the results or the integrity of the testing facility. This was a degree of testing above and beyond the usual testing protocol and out of the hands of Alvarez and his people. Maybe if his hair test had been dirty, we wouldn’t even be hearing about this testing and Canelo would simply serve his six month suspension in silence. But he was clean and, if the testing is to be believed, the case for bad intent is now minimal.
Alvarez’s people, of course, have been eager to scream “I told you so.”
"From the beginning, Canelo has insisted that he accidentally ingested clenbuterol from eating tainted meat," Eric Gomez, president of Golden Boy Promotions told ESPN. "The fact this NSAC-required hair follicle test came back entirely negative for any traces of clenbuterol should lay to rest any suspicion that he was intentionally taking a banned substance. Canelo is looking forward to getting back into training and returning to the ring in September. He thanks all of his fans for sticking by him and believes this test proves once and for all that he is a clean fighter."
Not so eager to scream, however, are all the angry fans and members of the media who formed bitter lynch mobs to go after the Mexican star and destroy his reputation and legacy.
The onslaught was absolutely brutal when the story seemed to fit the narrative set in their own minds. Eager to dislike Alvarez, anyway, the so-called “hardcore” or “purist” set was turbocharged with self-righteous rage, powered by the scoundrel’s attempt to “cheat” and his lack-of-guts ploy to use contaminated meat as an excuse.
But now, armed with actual knowledge that could change the story altogether, the lynch mobs are still pushing forward, playing dumb to reality and acting as though nothing has really changed. As of this writing, I’ve only seen one article written about Alvarez’s hair testing results and social media circles dedicated to roasting Alvarez alive have been deathly silent.
It makes you realize that a lot of boxing outrage is selective in nature and more about fans acting like fans (and media acting like fans).
In the case of Canelo, a six month suspension is fair for a first time offender in a commission with a zero tolerance rule. Merely having clenbuterol in his system was enough to warrant the suspension, regardless of how it got there. Intent was the devil in the detail when it came to fans and media rushing to kill off Canelo.
And if the hair test blows bad intent out of the water, then there’s absolutely no reason for this most recent rush to lynch. Yet, there’s no hint of a backwards step in their self-righteous aggression after this recent revelation or even a willingness to admit that their beliefs may need to be reassessed.
I’d like to say that this statement on the human nature of some boxing fans and media surprises me, but it really doesn’t.
Got something for Magno? Send it to him here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com