Vargas gets temporary license, Salido fight still on

1:19 AM ET

The California State Athletic Commission said Friday that it would issue junior lightweight world titleholder Francisco Vargas a temporary boxing license even though he tested positive for trace amounts of the banned steroid clenbuterol during a random test leading up to his first defense against Orlando Salido.

Vargas and Salido, a former titlist, are scheduled to fight June 4 in an HBO-televised main event at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. The fight will go on as long as Vargas’ future tests leading up to the fight are clean, Andy Foster, executive officer of the California commission, told ESPN.com.

Vargas tested positive for clenbuterol, which is typically used to assist in weight loss. The test was conducted on April 21 by the Las Vegas-based Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, a testing agency that Vargas requested to handle the testing for the bout.

That made a difference in the commission’s thinking, Foster said, adding that the temporary license would be issued Monday.

“I think you have to put stock in the fact that he asked for VADA,” Foster said. “That’s not all we looked at though.”

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Foster said Vargas would be subject, at his cost, to even more rigorous random blood and urine testing than he had been in the typical VADA program.

Vargas, who is from Mexico, said he believed the reason for his positive test was because he ingested contaminated meat in Mexico, where clenbuterol is commonly used illegally by ranchers in livestock feed.

That has been a problem in Mexico, where the Associated Press reported this week that coaches of the national teams are paying close attention to the meat their athletes eat to make sure they don’t ingest clenbuterol ahead of the Rio de Janeiro Olympics this summer.

“Mr. Vargas tested negative in California six days before he tested positive in Mexico,” Foster said. “I was told it was a very, very low amount, but it was flagged. There have been a lot of athletes from Mexico that have had problems with that substance. So what we’re going to do is give him the benefit of the doubt one …

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