EVERYTHINGโS been going great. With an experienced veteran what you do is remind them of certain things and the rest will take care of itself. Heโs been doing it for so long, Caneloโs not going to present him with anything he hasnโt 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. Iโm sure thereโs things theyโre going to work on to try to get inside so Iโm 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 donโt care about us bigger or stronger. That night weโve got to be the better guy.
It wasnโt demanding physically [boxing again straight after the Anthony Yarde fight] because we couldnโt come into camp hard, because it was five weeks until this fight. We gradually got back in the groove, heโd just fought, he was only off for two or three weeks. Weโre cruising right now.
The last fight was only hard when he lost focus. When youโve got a young man like Yarde, thatโs 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 heโd pull Kovalev out of the fight] to wake him up. Because he fell asleep. He got lazy. He got hit with stuff he shouldnโt have got hit with. I had to remind him, look if this is what youโre going to do then Iโm going to stop it now and he said to me donโt stop it, I got him now heโs tired.
Maxim Dadashev [who tragically passed away] is on my mind every day but I use it in a positive way, I donโt use it in a way that itโs going to affect my job. I ask myself what would Max want me to do. How would Max want me to handle this?
I respect Canelo for taking this challenge. Not too many guys would have done it. Without a catchweight. He didnโt ask for a catchweight, that makes it even more intriguing.
When he moved up to fight Rocky Fielding and youโve seen how easy that fight was, who else is there for him to fight? Okay, him and โGGGโ did it twice but who else was there thatโs going to get the fans interested in it? Thereโs nobody but Kovalev.
Kovalevโs jab is going to be the most important thing. I donโt focus on power because Caneloโs a very smart fighter. He sets traps well, he does a lot of good things in there. So Iโm not worried about the power, if anybody hits you right, I donโt care how much the weight difference is, catch someone on the right button, youโre 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.
Itโs a fight where you should get a couple of beers, sit down and watch.