Bernard Hopkins knows Canelo Alvarez better than most. As a former two weight world champion and stakeholder in Golden Boy Promotions, the company that helped build Canelo, Hopkins has watched the popular Mexican grow into a superstar.
Now a part of Matchroom’s bulging stable, Canelo has recently faced criticism for facing Avni Yildrim, his WBC mandatory, at the end of February. Despite his glittering record and ambition to continually test himself, Canelo has been unable to avoid scorn that has been aimed at him regarding the Yildrim mismatch.
Despite taking care of his routine obligation, Canelo will once again be placed in top level competition when he takes on Britain’s WBO champion, Billy Joe Saunders, in an eagerly anticipated unification showdown. Hopkins has sympathy for his former Golden Boy stablemate.
“These fights are warranted and they're meaningful,” said Hopkins when speaking to Fight Hub TV. “Not for his legacy but for his restart, his recharge, his mind, his physical, his spiritual. What moves Canelo is to be active as much as he can. He’s fortunate to get in two fights on the back end of COVID. Most fighters, if not all, had to sit for nine to ten months.
“I’ve read some people have said he’s fighting nobodies but this is preseason for him. See, when you do preseason, it isn’t looked upon as the season. So look at Canelo as being in preseason. He has about one more preseason fight and then he will go right into the regular fighting season and you will see the matches.”
Watch highlights or a full replay of Canelo vs. Yildrim on DAZN here.