Canelo Alvarez will not find it easy when he faces Billy Joe Saunders in May, according to Dereck Chisora’s new trainer, Buddy McGirt.
Chisora brought in the experienced McGirt ahead of his fight with New Zealand heavyweight Joseph Parker.
The 37-year-old Briton has 42 fights to his name and speaking to Ak & Barak on DAZN, the trainer admitted that it was not the time to radically overhaul the British fighter’s game.
“A lot of fighters win their fights one way, and then they have a tendency to get away from it,” he explained.
“The key is to remind them of certain things and try to make little adjustments, nothing major, because he’s been doing this a while, so I look and see what his biggest asset is and remind him of certain things and try to add a little bit on.
“Not a whole lot, where he’s comfortable. With him it’s a lot of simple things.”
Parker and Chisora are set to fight on May 1, a week before Canelo’s showdown with Saunders, a fight which will be shown on DAZN.
When asked about Canelo’s match-up with his own fighter Sergey Kovalev, McGirt said Canelo had little choice but to fight the light heavyweight given his ranking and WBO light heavyweight title.
“[Kovalev] was the top dog, he could have fought against anyone else, but he went after the top dog and you’ve got to respect that.
“But then again this is boxing, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
Canelo is currently on a mission to unify the 168lb division, and McGirt sees little standing in his way at that weight but namechecked a couple of light heavyweights who he thought might offer some resistance, as well as noting that Saunders could be potential banana skin.
“At 168, no I don’t think there is anyone who will beat him. I think that [Artur] Beterbiev would be a whole lot tougher. [Dmitry] Bivol is good but you need a little more to beat Canelo. If Billy Joe is in shape, he’s going to give him some trouble. Not saying he's going to win but he’s going to give him some trouble.”