As Canelo Alvarez gears up for his 168 lb title defense against Jermell Charlo, he talks to Brian Custer on The Last Stand Podcast and talks about his new promotional alignment and his expectations for this fight and beyond. Check out some of what he had to say below.
Canelo on why he decided to sign a multi-fight deal with PBC
“Look, I done a lot of thing (on) DAZN, I fought with a lot of fighters there, and I think it’s a correct moment to come here and fight here in PBC. I think we sit down with Al Haymon, we talk about it, and I just happy to be working with him.”
On fighting Jermell instead when many thought he’d be fighting Jermall Charlo
“I don’t know. I don’t know either. But, you know, I’m a fighter and I’m here to fight. I think no matter what, I’m the smaller fighter because I’m a small fighter for this weight class. And I don’t care, too. I been in this position my whole life and I’m happy because I think he’s the better fighter (of the two), because he have better fights, championship fights, undisputed, more confident. I think it’s a better fight right now for me.”
On those who believe he’s physically declining based on his recent outings
“They’re right because, you know, I’m not able to train 100% in those fights (because) of my hand. I’m (wasn’t) able to train 100%, but right now I’m able to train 100% and I can work with Eddy on the pads and everything — you see the videos.
“And when you don’t have that kind of training camps, you don’t (feel) confident 100% in what you do. But right now I’m just glad, I’m happy to be able to train 100% and working with Eddy with the pads and hit the heavy bags hard. So that make me feel confident.”
On if he intends to fight David Benavidez during this deal with PBC
“He’s always there. I always try to do the best fights out there and if it’s good for boxing, if it’s good for me, for people, I’m in.”
On if he still thinks he’s #1 P4P
“You know, I think we all deserve being #1 P4P. I think it’s (dis)respect put somebody at the top because, you know, you have Inoue, you have Crawford, you have Usyk, you have a lot of great fighters out there. And I think we all deserving being the #1.”
On Crawford saying he’d like at 158 lb catchweight fight against him
“No, I can’t. It’s gonna be very hard for me to make that weight. And like, I respect Crawford. He’s a great fighter and like he say, they talking about (a fight between him and Gervonta Davis) right, and I think he say ‘nobody’s gonna give me credit if I beat him.’ It’s the same thing.”