Trainer Robert Garcia says the reason Hamzah Sheeraz could knock out Edgar Berlanga and not Canelo Alvarez is that the Mexican superstar no longer tries to score knockouts. He just wants to win without sustaining a lot of punishment.
“Canelo doesn’t go for the knockout anymore. We’ve seen in the last few fights that he does just enough to win. We saw against Munguia that he dropped him, but then didn’t want to finish him,” said trainer Robert Garcia to Fight Hub TV when asked why Hamzah Sheeraz could knock out Edgar Berlanga but not Canelo Alvarez.
It’s been four years since Canelo knocked out an opponent when he stopped Caleb Plant in the 11th round in 2021. He had no choice but to knock him out because he was applying a lot of pressure, throwing left hooks. If Canelo hadn’t stopped him, he might have lost.
“Against Charlo and Berlanga, he showed that he just wants to cruise through fights. He’s up there, not in age, because he’s only 35,” said Robert about Canelo. “But he’s been fighting since he was 15, a lot of sparring matches, and a lot of training camps. So that takes a lot out of your body.”
Canelo paced himself against Jaime Munguia, William Scull, and many other fighters. He doesn’t have the best conditioning to go all out, looking for knockouts. Those guys could all punch. That’s another reason why he chose not to go for the KO.
“He takes care of his body, too. He doesn’t go all out because he doesn’t want to finish his body,” said Garcia about Alvarez. “He knows he has a few more years and a few big fights where he wants to take care of himself and not punish himself too much. That’s why he’s not been able to knock those guys out. Not because he can’t. I think he does just enough to win.”
It’s not just that Canelo is trying to take care of his body that causes him to hold back. It’s because he doesn’t have great stamina, and he fades quickly when he exerts himself. When Canelo is tired, it takes him longer to recover than other fighters. So, to combat this problem, he holds back, fighting at a close pace.
“I think Sheeraz has great power. He has the power that nobody believed he had, and he showed it last weekend,” said Robert.
Berlanga made it easy for Sheeraz to knock him out by coming into the flabby, and then choosing to fight him on the inside. He didn’t realize until it was too late how good of a fighter Hamzah is in close quarters. If he and his trainer had done their homework, they’d have known that it would be a mistake to fight in close.
