How Mia St. John threw Canelo Alvarez and the rest of the boxing world under the bus

As FightNights.com previously reported, former women's boxer Mia St. John admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs last week for an estimated 20 bouts in her career. However, her revelation, which was partially compelled by unified middleweight world titleholder Gennady Golovkin's criticism of lineal middleweight titlist Canelo Alvarez for failing two drug tests in February, did not help the cause for the Mexican superstar.

Alvarez (49-1-2, 34 KO's), 27, tested positive for trace amounts of the banned substance clenbuterol, but denied knowingly ingesting the substance, blaming the results on tainted meat in Mexico.

St. John (49-14-2, 19 KO's), 51, a former 154-pound world titleholder, decided to "defend" Alvarez after Golovkin (38-0-1, 34 KO's), 36, said he was “the most unpleasant and dirtiest opponent I’ve ever had.”

St. John revealed to L.A. Times reporter Lance Pugmire that she used steroids including stanozolol, nandrolone, oxandrolone, and a series of banned masking agents and diuretics. But instead of taking responsibility, St. John said she was compelled to cheat because everyone else was cheating.

“Whatever. Everyone does it & everyone in boxing knows it,” St. John said in a tweet.

“Obviously, I’m a Canelo fan, but I hate it when other fighters put down other fighters for something we all know is rampant in boxing,” St. John later told The Times. “I never once tested positive, and I’ve never told anyone this, but now that I’m retired I feel like it’s OK.”

Alvarez has repeatedly denied deliberately cheating and St. John is saying that Canelo should not be as heavily criticized because that is the reason why she also broke the rules.

Alvarez and Golovkin were set to fight on May 5 in a highly-anticipated rematch, but the fight was called off due to Canelo's failed tests. However, both sides renegotiated, and now both warriors are set to settle the score on Sept. 15 at T-Mobile Arena, in what should prove to be one of the most exciting fights of 2018. The first bout, which was also held at the T-Mobile in Sept. 2017, ended in a highly-controversial split draw.

St. John did not defend Canelo at all in this case. She threw him under the bus, admitted to cheating, shifted the bus into reverse, and ran over the rest of the boxing world in the process.

We do not live in a perfect world. There are likely a handful of fighters out there who are dirty and have yet to be caught, but to accuse every fighter of cheating is merely reckless, and inappropriate.