Canelo Alvarez sits down for an interview with Ring Magazine to discuss his super middleweight title defense to Terence Crawford, now that he’s had some time to reflect on things. Canelo admits that his body wasn’t physically where he wanted it to be at for that fight and it proved costly, but that he knows he can perform much better against Crawford and believes he deserves a chance at a rematch.
On what went wrong in his fight against Crawford
“A lot of things. My body doesn’t respond the way I really want because I want to be like more faster, this and that, and then I don’t recuperate my weight like I need it, so I feel a little bit tired, my legs feel a little bit tired too. But he deserve all the credit. He make a better strategy than me but I think I did well even if my body don’t feel like I really want. But it is what it is. You need to take the losses and learn from that and keep going.
“[Eddy Reynoso] tell me everything and I try but my body doesn’t respond. I have cramps in my legs so it doesn’t respond the way I really want…We learn from that and we move forward and I know what mistakes I made in the fight, in the camp, too. But that’s what boxing’s about. A winner doesn’t mean you need to win every time. No, you need to learn from everything, from the losses, take the losses and learn from that and move forward and still doing the things you love.”
On giving Crawford an opportunity and being frustrated he retired rather than give him a rematch
“Yeah, of course. I always give all his credit but we need to run it back. That’s why after the fight I say ‘we need to run it back, this fight’ because I don’t feel the way I really want and I need to make this fight happen again, and it’s going to be different. I think for him to deserve all the credit he need to give me the rematch, obviously. But he decide to retire and we need to accept that and move forward. I’m going to keep forward and do the fights I want and fight world champions again and that’s it. But I think the rematch will be perfect for boxing.”
On dealing with injuries over the years
“Oh, I have injuries, a lot of injuries in the past. Obviously, because I have a lot of fights, a lot of training camps, a lot of work for a long time, and I never take care about my body. I always ‘No, it’s good, my body can handle this. One more fight, one more fight.’ I never take care about my body and I think this is a moment where I need to stop a little bit, make that stop and take care of my body and that’s what I did. I did surgery on my elbow and things went well, so I feel better and I’m going to be ready for September.”
On wanting to go straight into a world title fight next
“I don’t want an easy fight and come back and all that kind of sh-t. I want to go straight and fight champions.”
On what he has left to accomplish in boxing
“I love boxing and I think my passion for boxing [keeps me going]…Every time I fight I always break some record. If you look back, every time I say ‘I pretty much accomplish everything’…every time I fight, I break records for some reason. And that makes me motivated.”
