By Craig Daly: Canelo Alvarez’s habit of playing a round of golf after every training session is hurting his performance inside the ring, says Bob Arum.
Arum still feels like Canelo (58-2-2, 39 KOs) is at his best despite his loss to Dmitry Bivol and his lackluster win over Gennadiy Golovkin last Saturday night.
Canelo looked faded in both fights, and it’s hard to imagine that version of him beating David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo or Bivol. Rather than see it as a sign of age and ring wear, Arum blames golf.
“GGG has a lot of boxing ability, so he’s still an elite fighter,” Bob Arum told Fighthype. “40 for a fighter, particularly for the middleweight division, is a big number. Have his abilities eroded? I think the answer is yes.
“He’s used to making so much money that it would be difficult to get him in the ring with a normal middleweight who doesn’t have that kind of bag.
“I think Janibek is a tremendous, tremendous fighter. I look at him objectively since he came from Kazakhstan. There he had a couple of fights. All of his fights have been with us. I think he has enormous talent.
“I don’t really see GGG going in the ring with Janibek. If you ask me why, because the money will not be up to GGG’s standards. Janibek is a better fighter at this point.
“I would think [Jermall] charlo wins that fight [against Golovkin] in this point. I don’t think Charlo is competitive with GGG at his best, but GGG’s best is long gone. So, I would pick Charlo to win that fight.
“I think the problem with Canelo is that you can’t be in a big fight and play a round of golf every day after you’re done training. That kills your legs and everything.
“Canelo, who is a charming guy. I personally like him very much, but he loves to play golf. That takes away, I think, from his performance. I don’t think so,” Arum said when asked if Canelo moving up and down from different divisions has hurt his performance.
“From 160 to 168, as long as he proves it. I don’t think he can do 160 more. He can go from 168 to 175, but not if he’s playing golf when he’s training,” Arum said.
