Canelo Alvarez hinted on Friday that he had a problem that prevented him from training properly going into his fight against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol on May 7th.
Although Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) adamantly refuses to make excuses, he does reveal that the problem that he had kept him from training for the Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) in his “usual” way, and as a result, he was tired early in that contest.
Canelo isn’t saying it was an injury or a personal problem that got in the way of his training for the Bivol fight. All he does say is that he’s 100% now, and he’ll be ready to fight Bivol in their rematch after he takes care of Gennadiy Golovkin on September 17th.
For the people that say that Canelo’s golf hobby got in the way of his training for the Bivol fight, he rejects that idea, saying that he became an undisputed super-middleweight champion while still golfing.
“I lost because I lost because I lost, not because of golf or nothing,” said Canelo Alvarez to Fight Hub TV in rejecting the idea that his loss to Dmitry Bivol was caused by him focusing too much on his hobby of playing golf.
“I was golfing three years ago, and I won the undisputed [super middleweight] championship, so that’s not the reason [I lost to Bivol],” said Canelo. “It’s another reason there, but I don’t want to say anything and make any excuses. I lost and that’s it,” said Canelo.
It would be interesting to learn what problem Canelo had that kept him from training properly for the Bivol fight. Whatever it was, it had to be a serious issue because Canelo looked exhausted after three rounds, and was unable to throw his powerful uppercut that he used to chop down Caleb Plant, Billy Joe Saunders, and Avni Yildirim.
“I got tired and that’s it,” Canelo said when asked why he couldn’t throw his uppercuts against Bivol. “I couldn’t train like usually, but it is what it is.
“I lost, but I’m going to get my chance again. I’m not eating a vegan diet or anything like that. It’s other things. It’s not that [overtrained], it’s other things. I don’t want to say anything.
“I’m 100% focused and my body is going to respond really good in training camp and be ready,” said Canelo when asked what he can do differently to defeat Bivol in the rematch. But right now, I’m focused on Golovkin.
“I don’t want any excuses. I want to fight in his division,” said Canelo when asked if he wants to return to the 175-lb division for the rematch with Bivol. “Maybe but I want,” said Canelo when told that people think the 175-lb division is too big for him.
