Evander Holyfield hasn't held back when sharing his thoughts on dealing with drug cheats in boxing.

The former unified heavyweight and undisputed cruiserweight champion was speaking after Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez's recent failed drugs test.

Alvarez is currently under investigation by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and has blamed contaminated meat for the traces of Clenbuterol in his system.

If found guilty, Alvarez will lose huge sums of prize money from his May 5 bout with Gennady Golovkin and could face a ban from the sport of up to two years.

But, because of the small quantity present in his system during the test, Canelo's finding is highly likely to be waived by the NSAC as coming from cattle.

Holyfield, speaking on the SiriusXM Boxing Radio Show, was adamant that anyone found guilty of deliberately trying to beat the testing procedures should face tough punishments.

“Put people in jail for 30 days. Stop it then," Holyfield told the show when asked for his opinion on those who are found to have taken performance enhancing substances.

"You’re touching drugs – they suspend you and it costs you money. They talk about 'get over it' - that don’t really work because somebody, one of the fighters trains real hard their whole life.

"People don’t know how bad it hurts people when they get robbed. That’s what boxing is. Some people don’t have a lot of people following them but that doesn’t mean they’re not a great fighter," he explained.

There is no doubting that drug-use is one of boxing's most contentious problems.

The real issue for the sport's chiefs, however, can be determining just what is deliberate and what is accidental.

Despite Holyfield's suggestion, it's highly unlikely that the boxing officials will listen to him and look to lock up boxers that failed tests in the future.