Boxing

Canelo Alvarez Sends Blunt Message About Teammate's Positive PED Test

Canelo Alvarez didn't mince words about his teammate Jaime Munguia testing positive for a banned substance.
Grant Young|
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez during the game International Friendly on September 7, 2024.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez during the game International Friendly on September 7, 2024. | IMAGO / Agencia-MexSport

On May 29, news broke that Mexican boxer Jaime Munguia had tested positive for a banned substance after his May 4 victory over Bruno Surace. The positive substance was referred to as "exogenous testosterone metabolites." If a subsequent test (called a B-sample) also returns as positive for the substance, the result of the fight against Surace will likely be overturned to a no-contest, and Munguia will receive a suspension of potentially up to a year.

Munguia issued a statement on this news via his social media on Thursday, which said, "Throughout my boxing career, I have undergone numerous anti-doping tests and have never tested positive.

"I was tested twice during this training camp, and both results came back negative, which is why receiving this notification of an adverse finding has been a complete surprise to me. Several experts have explained that there are multiple ways contamination can occur, and I am fully willing to undergo any retroactive, current, or future testing to demonstrate that I have always been a clean athlete," he added.

Munguia faced Saul "Canelo" Alvarez in a May 4, 2024, fight, which Canelo won via unanimous decision. Afterwards, Munguia joined Canelo's team, as both are under legendary head coach Eddy Reynoso.

And when addressing the media on May 30, Canelo got honest about his stance regarding his teammate's positive PED test.

In translated English from Spanish, Canelo is quoted as saying, "I am with [Munguia] 100%, but only he knows what happened."

He later added, "Eddy [Reynoso] doesn't give him his food."

It's interesting to hear Canelo jump to his coach's defense, asserting that even if Munguia was knowingly taking a banned substance, Reynoso likely had nothing to do with it (at least according to Canelo).

Alvarez also has a checkered history with positive PED tests, as he tested positive for trace amounts of the banned substance clenbuterol, which stimulates the heart and central nervous system, ahead of his rematch against Gennady Golovkin in 2018.

Canelo denied knowingly having taken the substance, was suspended for six months as a result of the test, and the initial May 2018 rematch date against Golovkin was moved to that September.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.