By Dan Ambrose: Canelo Alvarez was in damage control mode today, sounding like a politician, blaming his recent string of poor performances on his left hand injury ahead of his fight next month against Jermell Charlo on September 30th.
If Canelo’s got some kind of physical ailment that is holding him back from training hard for his fight with Jermell (35-1-1, 19 KOs), he needs to let the media know about it beforehand rather than revealing it afterward, as he did after his last three contests.
Trying to exonerate himself from those poor efforts won’t work because the boxing public doesn’t believe his hand excuse. They see that as something Canelo cooked up to escape the criticism coming down on him from fans.
The boxing public will only buy Canelo’s injury excuses for so long before they view him as an excuse-maker who can’t accept responsibility for his poor efforts.
The Mexican star needs to take ownership of the wrong approach that’s taken in most of his fights in the last six years. He’s developed a bad habit where loads up on everything and no longer throws combinations like he once did.
Canelo (59-2-2, 39 KOs) says his hand injury prevented him from training at 100%, hitting the pads with trainer Eddy Reynoso and working out on the heavy bag.
Alvarez, 33, had hand surgery before his latest fight against his WBO 168-lb mandatory challenger John Ryder last May. Yet, he looked just as bad in that contest as he had in his two previous contests against Gennadiy Golovkin & Dmitry Bivol.
Canelo’s surgically repaired left hand was reportedly 100% for his title defense of his undisputed super middleweight championship against 35-year-old Ryder, but he didn’t look good at all for that fight. To listen to Canelo today, he says he couldn’t train properly. That means he wasn’t fully healed for that fight.
“I’m not happy. I’m happy with all the things I have in my hand. I’m happy, but I’m not 100%,” said Canelo Alvarez to the media when asked about reports of him not being pleased with his recent performances against John Ryder, 41-year-old Gennadiy Golovkin & Dmitry Bivol.
It looked like Canelo’s main problem in those three fights was his lack of conditioning rather than his left hand. He appeared tired early on and didn’t have the stamina to fight the full three minutes of each round.
Even if Canelo’s left hand was a problem for those contests, that shouldn’t have prevented him from getting on the track and running fast-pace.
“Because of my hand because I’m not able to train 100%, hitting the pads with Eddy [Reynoso], working with Eddy and hitting hard the heavy bags and everything,” said Canelo.
This looks example of a person coming up with an alibi for his dismal efforts against Ryder, Golovkin, and Bivol.
“I think it’s some good fights with PBC, and I always like to work with good people and the best out there, and I think PBC is one of the best,” said Canelo when asked why he recently signed a three-fight deal with PBC.
“No, we don’t know. We’re 100% focused on Jermell, and then we want to sit down with Al Haymon and see what he thinks,” said Canelo on who he’ll fight in the next two fights of his three-fight contract with Premier Boxing Champions.
