‘Canelo is not going to present anything Kovalev hasn’t seen before’

Canelo Alvarez vs Rocky Fielding

EVERYTHINGโ€™S been going great. With an experienced veteran what you do is remind them of certain things and the rest will take care of itself. Heโ€™s been doing it for so long, Caneloโ€™s not going to present him with anything he hasnโ€™t seen before. The key is just staying focused and concentrating on what we have to do.

Anybody can be dangerous at any time. If we focus on what we have to do, I believe in my heart everything else is going to take care of itself.

Canelo has a hell of a trainer, Mr. [Eddy] Reynoso. Iโ€™m sure thereโ€™s things theyโ€™re going to work on to try to get inside so Iโ€™m not look at this as being the bigger guy or the stronger guy. My goal that night is for Sergey to be the better guy. I donโ€™t care about us bigger or stronger. That night weโ€™ve got to be the better guy.

It wasnโ€™t demanding physically [boxing again straight after the Anthony Yarde fight] because we couldnโ€™t come into camp hard, because it was five weeks until this fight. We gradually got back in the groove, heโ€™d just fought, he was only off for two or three weeks. Weโ€™re cruising right now.

The last fight was only hard when he lost focus. When youโ€™ve got a young man like Yarde, thatโ€™s given a shot at the world title, he was very, very confident in himself that he was going to win. He came to fight. It was inexperience that he showed.

I was saying that [that heโ€™d pull Kovalev out of the fight] to wake him up. Because he fell asleep. He got lazy. He got hit with stuff he shouldnโ€™t have got hit with. I had to remind him, look if this is what youโ€™re going to do then Iโ€™m going to stop it now and he said to me donโ€™t stop it, I got him now heโ€™s tired.

Maxim Dadashev [who tragically passed away] is on my mind every day but I use it in a positive way, I donโ€™t use it in a way that itโ€™s going to affect my job. I ask myself what would Max want me to do. How would Max want me to handle this?

canelo alvarez
Hogan Photos/Golden Boy Promotions

I respect Canelo for taking this challenge. Not too many guys would have done it. Without a catchweight. He didnโ€™t ask for a catchweight, that makes it even more intriguing.

When he moved up to fight Rocky Fielding and youโ€™ve seen how easy that fight was, who else is there for him to fight? Okay, him and โ€˜GGGโ€™ did it twice but who else was there thatโ€™s going to get the fans interested in it? Thereโ€™s nobody but Kovalev.

Kovalevโ€™s jab is going to be the most important thing. I donโ€™t focus on power because Caneloโ€™s a very smart fighter. He sets traps well, he does a lot of good things in there. So Iโ€™m not worried about the power, if anybody hits you right, I donโ€™t care how much the weight difference is, catch someone on the right button, youโ€™re going to sleep. The key is just not to get caught with anything big. The key is just to go in there and do what you have to do.

Itโ€™s a fight where you should get a couple of beers, sit down and watch.

Sergey Kovalev and Canelo Alvarez fight for the WBO light-heavyweight title on November 2 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

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