"I'm really glad that he's getting this opportunity. I feel like in the last fight, he proved that he had more left than what people thought he did, and I still believe he has an upside...he's still a hungry student. I like what I see in camp so far and he's very motivated, so I look for a good fight. He's got a lot of respect for his opponent, but Alfredo's coming to win and it's gonna be a good fight because it's not going to be a situation where there's a champion; whoever wins this fight is going to have to fight to win it...I think he definitely has something to prove, Canelo. It's a must-win situation for him if he wants to stay relevant to the point where he can say Mayweather is the only one who beat him," stated world-class trainer Virgil Hunter, who shared his thoughts on the anticipated March 8 showdown between his fighter, top jr. middleweight contender Alfredo Angulo, and former jr. middleweight champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez. Check it out!
BT: What's up, Virg? Congratulations on the news that Canelo has decided to face Angulo on March 8.
VH: I'm really glad that he's getting this opportunity. I feel like in the last fight, he proved that he had more left than what people thought he did, and I still believe he has an upside because I took into account the time that he was incarcerated and the impact that it did on his conditioning and body and things like that. I told him it was going to take him a year or year and a half to really, really get right, but he's still a hungry student. I like what I see in camp so far and he's very motivated, so I look for a good fight. He's got a lot of respect for his opponent, but Alfredo's coming to win and it's gonna be a good fight because it's not going to be a situation where there's a champion; whoever wins this fight is going to have to fight to win it.
BT: Based on their styles, one would think that a fight with Erislandy Lara might be a little more difficult for Angulo than a fight with Canelo. Obviously Angulo has already faced Lara and performed extremely well, giving him his toughest fight to date. Based on that, do you think Angulo should be favored going in against Canelo, who is coming off the bad outing against Mayweather?
VH: Well, I mean, you have a strong point there. Because of the footwork of Lara and his ability to change directions, and also being a southpaw, his amateur pedigree, and the duration of his fighting, I mean, I consider him the best 154-pounder in the world. That's not bringing Floyd into the equation because Floyd hits 54 and jumps back to 47, but from a solid position, I have to consider Lara the man at 54 for the simple reason that he's the one that's avoided the most. Nobody is very interested in fighting him, and I know firsthand that they should have that concern. He's a very, very difficult guy to fight and if you're not ready for his footwork and his ability to change angles and things like that, it's going to be a long night for you. In retrospect, what you're saying is that we know we don't have to deal with the same foot speed in this particular fight, but Canelo does have good, way above average handspeed, he punches good in combinations, and he's had some good fights lately that prepared him for a fight like this. But I think Angulo coming off the Lara fight, I think he's motivated. He knows the truth in this fight, and just the idea that we were up on one scorecard and close on the other, that that fight was up in the air and we felt that, before the eye situation, we were going to finish him, I think that gives him a certain amount of momentum coming into the fight. It also helped us identify some more of the things that he needed to work on because by fighting a top guy, it pretty much let us know some of the things that we needed to shore up and some of the things that we needed to do. It gave us that opportunity, so that's what we're doing now. We're trying to fix certain flaws that he had that will give him more of a chance, more of an opportunity to come out convincingly victorious.
BT: Obviously both guys are coming off of a loss. In Angulo's case, it was a close fight that he was coming on strong in before an eye injury forced an early stop to it. In Canelo's case, he was totally outclassed and dominated in virtually every round. What kind of psychological impact do you think that will have on Canelo coming into this fight and do you think that it gives you guys an advantage?
VH: I think he definitely has something to prove, Canelo. It's a must-win situation for him if he wants to stay relevant to the point where he can say Mayweather is the only one who beat him. Let's not forget that Floyd himself announced him to be a superstar of the future, so he has a lot of pressure on him to own up to that christening so to speak. So he's coming into this fight with a lot of pressure on him. Alfredo is not expected to win this fight. I believe the consensus is he's expected to give a good fight, give Canelo a tough fight; we might find out some things about Canelo that we didn't know in the past because of this fight, but when it's all said and done, I think that they feel like the advantages that they think they have will come to fruition and they'll come out victorious in the fight. So saying that means we don't have that pressure on us; we're not expected to win, but Canelo has the pressure on him. He's expected to win. He's being touted as a future superstar; he's been christened by Mayweather to be a future superstar and coming off of his fight, it's a lot of questions that still have to be answered. You know, fighting lighter weight guys to get to the promised land like he did, bypassing a lot of the tougher guys in the division, and now he's down there where he has to fight these guys. He has a lot of questions that he has to answer, so I think he does have quite a bit of pressure on him.
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