Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin rematch cancelled

There will be no rematch.

Golden Boy Promotions announced in a media conference on Tuesday that Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin will no longer be happening on May 5th, as Alvarez is facing punishment from the Nevada Athletic Commission for his positive drug test for clenbuterol.

If Canelo is cleared to fight by August or September, presumably that means they’re hopeful that the NAC will hand Alvarez a six-month suspension when the two parties meet on April 18th. Alvarez maintains that the positive test result was caused by contaminated meat, something that has affected multiple athletes from both Mexico and China in recent years.

This is the first major boxing match to be cancelled due to a drug test failure since Alexander Povetkin failed for meldonium ahead of a 2016 bout vs. Deontay Wilder. Canelo vs. GGG 2 obviously is a much-higher profile bout, with the first matchup drawing well over one million PPV buys and the third-largest gate in boxing history, so this is an enormous deal and plenty of money now off the table for several months.

Golovkin’s promoter Tom Loeffler said last week that the reigning WBC, WBA, and IBF middleweight champion will still fight on the May 5th date, but an opponent has not yet been named. Presumably that’s the next news coming, and unlike Max Holloway stepping in to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 223, chances of GGG taking on an established elite replacement opponent are low.