By Sean Jones: Canelo Alvarez showed former heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr some moves this week in how to deflect punches in the gym as he prepares for his May 1st comeback against Chris Arreola.
The super middleweight champion Alvarez showed Ruiz (33-2, 22 KOs) how to roll with the punches to take the steam off of them and seemed to be learning well.
Canelo (55-1-2, 37 KOs) is training for his unification match against WBO 168-lb champion Billy Joe Saunders (30-0, 14 KOs) next month on May 8th on DAZN.
Ruiz will need to be able to deflect the shots because he’s taking on two-time world title challenger Arreola (38-6-1, 33 KOs) in the headline event next month on Fox Sports PBC pay-per-view on May 1st at the Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, California.
Arreola threw 1,125 punches in his last fight against Adam Kownacki in 2019, and he’s someone that can give Ruiz Jr a lot of problems with his work rate.
Ruiz has taken off almost 60 pounds since joining Canelo’s gym in San Diego, California, to work with trainer Eddy Reynoso.
Boxing fans will find out next month if the weight loss and change of trainers are going to help Ruiz or possibly hurt him.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjGGifdRGVI
Teofimo wants to spar Canelo
“Yeah, I would like to, but I want to make sure on our end that we’re also good,” said Teofimo Lopez to Fighthype about whether he would accept Canelo’s invitation to spar with him in San Diego at his camp.
“I also don’t want to interfere with his training; I don’t want to interfere with his camp to come in one day when he’s sparring and needs everything quiet,” said Teofimo about Canelo.
“The thing is, we’ll just pop up on the scene, ‘Hey, what’s up, guys?’ Respectfully, I want to do it in a better way. Just going in someone’s gym, it’s their territory. So you got to respectfully understand that.
“Honestly, I would like to work with him in a way, even sparring too, but work on drills. I want to show him [Canelo] a couple of things, and he’ll show me a couple of things we’ll learn.
“We’re not in the same weight class, but I’ll hold my own, though. It goes for everybody. Helping out. I got some good ideas.
“We are all striving for the same thing, to be the best fighter in the world, to be the best champion, and to be the people’s champion,” said Teofimo.
Canelo needs to be sparring with guys from the 168-lb weight class rather than smaller fighters like Teofimo, who is more of a 140-pounder than a 135-pounder.
It wouldn’t help Canelo spar with Teofimo because he’s too small, and his fighting style is much different from Saunders.
It isn’t easy to know what Teofimo can teach Canelo, but it wouldn’t be Teo if he weren’t bragging himself. That’s classic Teofimo.
We saw from Teofimo against an injured Vasily Lomachenko and Masayoshi Nakatani that he’s not going to teach Canelo much.
Teo preparing for Kambosos Jr fight on June 5th
“Financially, it’s going to get better and better and better,” said Teofimo predicting he’s going to make more money with each fight. “That’s when I’ll get back to setting out the things that I want to do.
“I’m looking forward to June 5th, and I’m looking forward to being on a great platform and a very entertaining one, which is Triller to partner with them.
“I’m looking forward to who we’re going to have as the audience and the talent as part of the show. For everyone tuning in, it’s going to be great.
“Don’t miss out on it. They’re going to go big. Do you think April 17th [Triller’s Jake Paul vs. Ben Askren card] is going to be big? This one [Teofimo vs. George Kambosos Jr] is going to be bigger.
“I’m looking forward to that. They already have Justin Bieber [as a music enertainer] and for everyone on April 17th, so imagine what they’re going to do for June 5th in Miami [for Teofimo vs. Kambosos].
“I’m looking forward to it. Tune in for the fight, and I look forward to everyone see me conquer, and the takeover comes and whatever else he [Teofimo speaking in the third person] takes over this year,” said Teofimo.
What Teofimo doesn’t realize is the entertainment that Triller will be putting on during the Kambosos card won’t make boxing fans want to purchase the card on pay-per-view.
Fans don’t decide whether to purchase PPV cards based on who the musical entertainers are. They base their decisions on how good fights are.
It’s the same thing with the NFL and the Super Bowl. Fans don’t purchase tickets to see the Super Bowl games because of the halftime entertainment. Fans want to see sporting events, and they don’t want to be subjected to music that they may dislike.