By Sean Jones: Saul Canelo Alvarez has finally responded to former WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev’s comments about him being weight drained from making weight and dealing with the rehydration clause in their fight on November 2.
Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) is calling Kovalev (34-4-1, 29 KOs) a “Bad loser” by blaming his loss on weight issues. The Mexican star says all fighters deal with having to make weight, and it’s not an excuse.
The rehydration clause was a bad idea
Canelo moved up two weight classes to stop Kovalev in the 11th round earlier this month on November 2 at the MGM Grand Garden in Las Vegas, Nevada. Most boxing fans would agree that Kovalev, 36, put in the worst performance of his career, because he didn’t appear to try hard. Kovalev put nothing on his shots, and looked like he was intentionally taking it easy on Canelo.
Having a 10-lb rehydration clause in the contract was a mistake on Canelo’s part, because it gave Kovalev an excuse.
Kovalev is a bad loser – Canelo
“He’s a bad loser. Weight is not an excuse. All fighters have to battle to make weight. An excuse like that doesn’t make sense,” said Canelo to ESPN Deportes.
Kovalev took the fight with Canelo shortly after he’d gone through a tough fight against Anthony Yarde on August 31, and he didn’t have time to rest. Training camp for Kovalev started 3 weeks after his fight with Yarde to begin preparing for the Canelo fight. There was no chance for Kovalev to rest, and recoup from the Yarde fight, which he had been badly hurt in.
“Given the conditions, it was impossible to win. You are ignoramuses since you thought I could win. I climbed into this weight with torment & sleepless nights. Because it was a financially interesting offer,” said Kovalev to boxinggu.ru.
Kovalev calling the boxing fans “ignoramuses” for them believing he had a chance to beat Canelo is a strange move on his part, because it furthered their suspicion that he hadn’t tried to win. They think the fight was STAGED, and that Kovalev had let Canelo win for some reason.
Canelo won’t let DAZN delay the start of his fights again
“I will not allow them to do that, I will talk to them (DAZN), at least for my fights,” said Canelo in talking about how DAZN delayed the start of his fight against Kovalev due to a UFC fight taking place on the same night.
DAZN delayed the Canelo vs. Kovalev fight in order not to compete with the UFC broadcast, because that would have led to fewer fans watching. They ended up delaying the start of the Canelo-Kovalev fight for an hour, and both fighters looked tired from waiting by the start of the fight. It also forced a lot of boxing fans to stay up late in order for them to watch the fight.
It was surprising that DAZN was willing to delay one of Canelo’s fights, because he’s a huge superstar, and he’s a fighter that has massive amounts of fans that watch him.