It was officially announced on Wednesday that Gennady Golovkin will fight Vanes Martirosyan on May 5 following the withdrawal of Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, who pulled out earlier this month in the wake of two positive tests for banned substance clenbuterol.

Alvarez was temporarily suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission following the results of the tests administered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency (VADA) on February 17 and 20, but maintained his innocence and his camp blamed the adverse findings on eating tainted meat in the 27-year-old's homeland.

He withdrew in light of that suspension and ahead of a scheduled hearing with the Nevada commission on Wednesday, which saw the Mexican star receive a retroactive suspension of six months.

The eagerly awaited rematch between the pair who battled to a controversial draw in September was scheduled to take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but the replacement bout will be staged at the StubHub centre in Carson, California.

Armenian-American Martirosyan usually fights at light middleweight and has lost both of his title bouts at that level - to Demetrius Andrade in 2013 and Erislandy Lara in 2016.

The 31-year-old has not fought since losing on points to Lara two years ago and appears to have little hope of upsetting undefeated Kazakh Golovkin, who will put the WBA, WBC and IBO straps on the line.

The draw with Canelo was the first fight Golovkin failed to win in what was his 38th professional bout.

After pulling out of the fight against unified world champion Golovkin, Alvarez insisted he was not guilty of any wrongdoing.

World Boxing Council President Mauricio Sulaiman is just happy that an event is taking place on the Cinco De Mayo date and views Vanes as a worthy opponent.

"First you have to celebrate the fact that there will be an event on May 5. You could not go without boxing on a date that is very important for the sport," Sulaiman said to ESPN Deportes.

"Martirosyan is an experienced fighter who has faced and defeated important fighters. He was our silver champion and the last five opponents we ordered turned him down. He was waiting for a final eliminator at 154 pounds and the opportunity came up to fight for the middleweight title against the most important fighter of the moment, and also with the possibility of winning because of the distractions that Golovkin has had to go through and that can play against him."