By Sean Jones: Oscar De La Hoya says the only way Canelo Alvarez can defeat Dmitry Bivol in their rematch is if he boots his long-time trainer Eddy Reynoso and goes with someone that can work on his footwork.
We still have a ways to go before Canelo needs to worry about fighting WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol again.
Alvarez will be fighting 40-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin next on September 17th, and it’s believed that he took this fight because it’s more winnable.
Canelo’s flat-footed style of fighting may be impervious to change, and it could be a useless move for him to give Reynoso his walking papers in hopes that a new coach will make him light on his feet.
I hate to say it, but drumming Reynoso out of the Canelo gym may do little to address the flaws in his game. It’ll be kicking the problem down the road for some other trainer to try and deal with unsuccessfully.
Canelo’s flaws have been there from day one. He doesn’t have double-digit losses because of careful match-making and controversial decisions that saved him from at least an additional five defeats over the years.
Oscar feels that Reynoso is the root of Canelo’s problems, which are only now being brought to light after his recent humiliating loss to Bivol (20-0, 11 KOs) on May 7th.
De La Hoya thinks that swapping out Reynoso for a new trainer will improve Canelo (57-2-2, 39 KOs) enough to where he’ll defeat Bivol.
It’s not just Canelo’s lack of footwork that Reynoso has failed to address. Canelo’s cardio is poor, and his style of walking forward with a high guard will get him in all kinds of trouble when he eventually starts fighting the quality 168-pounders like David Benavidez and David Morrell Jr.
“Styles make fights unless Canelo changes trainers and gets better in his footwork,” said Oscar De La Hoya to Fighthype about what Canelo must do to defeat Bivol in a rematch.
The ONLY reason Canelo has gotten away with his flat-footed fighting style is that he’s been facing primarily paper champions and flawed fighters since his controversial win over Gennadiy Golovkin in 2018.
Recent Canelo opponents
- Billy Joe Saunders
- Caleb Plant
- Daniel Jacobs
- Sergey Kovalev
- Callum Smith
- Avni Yildirim
- Rocky Fielding
Canelo has been with Reynoso from day one, so it’s probably unrealistic that he will give him the royal boot as Anthony Joshua did with his long-standing coach Rob McCracken recently.
We haven’t seen yet whether Joshua’s trainer change will work in his favor or not, but it’s likely going to be a failure of the worst kind.
Interestingly, De La Hoya is advocating a trainer change for Canelo because he must realize there’s not a trainer alive that can fix the Mexican star’s slow feet.
Does De La Hoya honestly believe that Canelo can defeat Bivol with the help of a new trainer, or is he just saying this to give him a little confidence boost?
“I think Canelo is too flat-footed for someone like Bivol, who uses his head and his intelligence, because if you look at Canelo’s losses, which are only with Mayweather and Bivol.
“He [Canelo] lost because of his footwork and the other guys being light on their feet, and him being too heavy on his feet.
“If he does change trainers, he has a shot at beating Bivol,” said De La Hoya, making it clear that Canelo should dump Eddy Reynoso.
