Canelo: It’s Not An Easy Fight

By Miguel Maravilla

WBC, WBA middleweight world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (50-1-2, 34 KOs) of Mexico returns to the ring as he takes on WBA world super middleweight champion Rocky Fielding (27-1, 15 KOs) of England. Canelo will take on Fielding this Saturday night December 15 at Madison Square Garden in New York City live on DAZN.

“I’m really motivated for this fight. It’s not an easy fight, and I’m preparing for the best Rocky Fielding,” Canelo Alvarez said on his upcoming fight with Fielding.In challenging Fielding, Canelo will be moving up in weight to the 168-pound limit as he attempts to join the list of Mexicans to win three world titles in three weight divisions. Mexican greats like Julio Cesar Chavez, Erik “El Terrible” Morales, Marco Antonio “The Baby-Faced Assassin” Barrera and Jorge “El Travieso” Arce.

“It’s very important to be on that list of about ten Mexicans to become three-division world champions, so very important to enter history,” Canelo said. “This would put me in the top 10 List of Mexican world champions, so it’s very important to win this title,” Canelo added.

This will be Canelo’s first fight in the Big Apple and at the famed “Mecca of Boxing.” The famed arena which has hosted many great memorable fights including Ali Frazier 1. Some of the greats to step foot in the ring at Madison Square Garden include Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Oscar De La Hoya, Gennady Golovkin and now Canelo.

“To fight in New York is another landmark in my career and is another important story in my career. I know great fighters have fought there, like Muhammad Ali, and to mention more fighters would be unnecessary. But to be the main event there at Madison Square Garden, and if I’m not mistaken, first Mexican there in a long time, it fills me with pride,” Canelo commented.

Coming off a majority decision win over previously undefeated Gennady “GGG” Golovkin in a rematch, Alvarez handed Golovkin his first defeat in exchanging with the hard hitting champion and slugger in winning the WBC, WBA, & IBO titles.

“It was a good win for me and I’m all willing to make a third fight, if we made two, I’ll make a third one,” Canelo on Golovkin.

With that said, Canelo wrapped up his training camp in San Diego with his trainer Eddie Reynoso and co-trainer manager Jose “Chepo” Reynoso as Canelo prepares to move up to super middleweight and take on Fielding.

“This has been a good camp. I’m taking a risk by entering into a comfort zone of a champion and his weight, that’s a risk, and that risk makes it even,” Canelo said.

“We’ll be moving up in weight, and when a boxer does that, he’s basically experimenting. We know that we have a great fighter in front of us and that Canelo will be preparing well, so height won’t be a problem to us. He’ll adapt,” Canelo’s trainer Eddie Reynoso said.

His opponent Fielding stands tall at 6’1 and is obviously much more taller than Canelo along with his 75 inch reach.

“I know that he’s taller,” Canelo on the height difference. “You know, it doesn’t worry me, the height difference. I’m a fighter who can adapt, and that’s what I’ll be doing when I fight him,” Canelo on the height disadvantage.

Fielding is coming off a TKO over Tyron Zeuge in winning the WBA World super middleweight title. His only defeat came to current WBA champion Callum Smith back in 2015. Since his only defeat Fielding has won six straight fights coming into this bout with Canelo.

“He’s a strong fighter. He’s tall and he has a lot of reach, and he’s also used to receiving punches,” Canelo on Fielding.

Win or lose. Where does Canelo go from here after this fight? In moving up this fight to 168 pounds it’s likely that Canelo is looking to add another title to his already impressive resume. With the more lucrative fights below at middleweight, a third fight with Golovkin would make more sense.

“Right now the goal, the objective, is to fight for this world title and win on December 15 and then go back to 160 points where I do best. If we’ll be moving up and down those divisions, we didn’t know, but right now our goal is to get the title to middleweight,” Canelo said. “I can’t go down further than 160 pounds. If that fight were to take place, it would have to be at 160 pounds,” Canelo added.

One fight that Canelo would definitely like, is a rematch with Floyd Mayweather. Having suffered his only loss to Mayweather, Canelo dropped a majority decision back in 2013. Alvarez has also expressed interest in a potential rematch.

“I’m a more complete fighter now. I would be much more competitive. I have a lot more experience. I have improved a lot, so it would be different. After Mayweather, we’ve faced very good fighters. We fought Miguel Cotto, GGG twice. It will be different,” Canelo said.

For now the focus and task will be on Fielding as Canelo looks to add another world title to his collection.

“I am preparing to make the best of it in this fight by any way, by any means necessary. I’m going to leave everything in the ring,” Canelo concluded.