By Miguel Rivera

Mexican boxing legend Juan Manuel Marquez believes that Canelo Alvarez could have stayed in the fight against Gennady Golovkin while trying to prove his innocence.

Instead of walking away from the fight, he feels Canelo should have played things out until the scheduled hearing on April 18 in Las Vegas.

Canelo is currently under a temporary suspension due to him testing positive for clenbuterol in two separate drug tests which took place in February.

He was scheduled to challenge Golovkin for the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC middleweight titles on May 5th at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas - but on Tuesday he officially withdrew from the contest.

Marquez understands who Canelo would have pulled out, since his mind was obviously distracted in camp, but he feels the Mexican superstar should have kept stayed in until the NSAC suspended him.

The NSAC advised Canelo's team that he likely would not have been approved to fight on May 5.

"At this point we have to see why he canceled it, he had talked about doing thorough exams to show that it was clenbuterol, and now the fight is canceled. If there is something concrete he would have shown it with other evidence that he was clean. It is true that the time was short [between the hearing date and] the fight on May 5 but he had to do other tests (to prove his innocence)," said Marquez to ESPN Deportes.

"For me, it would have had to go to the end. It is true that there wasn't a lot of time, but I would have done the exams with even more care from the anti-doping agency to leave my situation clean. At this point he should have done that. He canceled the fight because he was not focused, that is also understood.

"In particular I don't think it hurts his career, he has to make it clear that he is a clean fighter, to undergo rigorous examinations, to leave his image clean, I definitely do not think it will harm him if they check for clenbuterol. The fight was canceled because of the time, but he could take the exams to prove everything, what remains is to show that he is clean."