Canelo Alvarez revealed on Tuesday that he was “sad” about his gym mate Oscar Valdez’s loss last Saturday night against Shakur Stevenson because he wanted him to win the fight.
The Mexican superstar Canelo acknowledged that WBC/WBO super featherweight champion Stevenson (18-0, 9 KOs) is a better fighter than Valdez.
If it’s true what Bob Arum says that Valdez’s trainer Eddy Reynoso is the one that wanted him to take the fight with Shakur, you got to wonder what he was thinking.
It was pretty clear to the boxing public ahead of time that Valdez (30-1, 23 KOs) stood no shot at beating Stevenson, and they were right.
Moving forward, Valdez needs to let his promoters at Top Rank do the selection process rather than him letting his trainer pick out his opponents.
“We were obviously sad because of Valdez’s loss because we wanted him to win, but this is boxing and Shakur is simply just a better fighter,” said Canelo Alvarez in reacting to Oscar Valdez’s loss to Shakur Stevenson last Saturday
“Yes, he’s a really good fighter, a great fighter,” Canelo said about Shakur.
Valdez might be better off moving back down to 126 where he doesn’t need to worry about being outsized like he was against Shakur.
Canelo Alvarez is fighting this Saturday night on May 7th against WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Hearn says Canelo must attack Bivol
“He needs to bring the fight to Bivol. If he boxes like he did against Sergey Kovalev, it’s going to be a really tough night for Canelo Alvarez because he took his time and let Kovalev use his size,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV.
“Kovalev wasn’t faded, but he was at the back end up his career when he fought him. Dmitry Bivol isn’t, so he’s going to use his feet really well, and be in & out with his European style.
“Canelo has to cut the ring off and do what he does really well, which is walk him down, slip & slide, get on the inside and hurt him, but do it early.
“I don’t think Eddy Reynoso is going to want him to get through four, five, or six rounds with Dmitry Bivol getting into his flow.
“But Dmitry is going to be hit like he’s never been hit before, and also he’s going to experience something he’s never experienced before, which is 20,000 people going crazy for their hero [Canelo] inside the T-Mobile. I expect a great fight
