Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin have signed up for drug testing after their trilogy fight was officially confirmed.
Alvarez suffered his second career defeat to Russian star Dmitry Bivol when stepping up to 175lb earlier this month. The Mexican star will now make a switch back to 168lb to defend his undisputed titles against Golovkin on September 17.
Both Golovkin and Alvarez have agreed to VADA drug testing for the bout in partnership with the WBC's 'Clean Boxing' programme. The pair's first meeting ended in a controversial split-decision draw leaving Golovkin aggrieved with the judges' scorecards.
Shortly after the event, Alvarez failed two drug tests just three days apart in 2018 when he tested positive for banned substance clenbuterol. He attributed the positive tests on both February 17 and February 20 to tainted meat consumed in Mexico.
The pair renewed their rivalry later that year with Alvarez having his hand raised after being awarded a narrow majority decision. Golovkin was again angered by the final result and felt he deserved the nod. The Kazakh star has since ignited a renewed war of words.
"If he believes it was something I said and that it was personal, where has he been all these years? Three or four years already," Golovkin told Ariel Helwani. "If it’s personal, what has he been waiting for? I have not said anything bad, whatever has been said was tied to those scandals, and he was the cause of those scandals. There were arguments and proof. It’s not me, it’s the entire world, If he believes I’m talking s***.
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"That’s the entire world using the arguments and everything can be proven. For him to be making arguments now and framing it in this way it’s kind of low, I would say. It’s kind of mean. It’s indecent behaviour and I do not have any hate. I honestly don’t talk about him at all."
Alvarez's decision to pursue his planned clash against Golovkin will push back any sequel with Bivol until December. The Mexican believes his "personal" rivalry with Golovkin needs to be put to bed before exploring other options.
"With this deal, they wanted a fight with Golovkin.," Alvarez said. "So I said, ‘Why not? Everyone wants (me to) fight Golovkin, right? Maybe a little late, maybe not, but everybody wants the fight. Yeah, it’s personal. He talks a lot of s***. He says a lot of things. We’ll see. I’m really happy to bring you the best fights and this one will be no exception. It’s time to end what we started and defend our titles."
