CANELO ALVAREZ has revealed he always says ‘goodbye’ to his family before he sets foot inside the ring.
The sweet science is undoubtedly one of the most dangerous sports in the world and has left its mark on many a fighter.
Canadian Adonis Stevenson was the last high-profile boxer to suffer a serious injury, with the former WBC light-heavyweight champion having to undergo emergency brain surgery after his 11th-round TKO loss to Oleksandr Gvozdyk in December 2018.
And the risks of the beautiful but violent sport are at the forefront of Canelo’s mind each time he makes the walk to the ring.
In a frank interview with Graham Bensinger, the Mexican said: “I know the risks in boxing.
“I get up in the ring and maybe I won’t be coming down.
“Maybe I’ll come down dead. But I know that. And I always say goodbye to my family.
“I tell them, ‘Don’t worry, don’t cry. If I die, I’ll die doing what I love most.'”
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Pound-for-pound king Canelo and his family went through a horrendous ordeal ahead of his December 2018 showdown with Rocky Fielding when one of his brothers was kidnapped.
And the Mexican had to negotiate his sibling’s release from his captors.
He recalled: “Over the phone, I negotiated all the – I negotiated everything for his release.
“For three days, I negotiated with those a**holes so they would let him go. Three days.
“After I negotiated, I was still thinking, imagine if this had been my daughter, my mother, my father. For me it would’ve been more difficult.
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“And on top of that I had to fight on Saturday, and a thousand interviews and everything, no one knew anything.
“And that’s what I’m getting at, everybody thinks, wow, you know, they see me up there and say, ‘Wow, it’s very easy’.
“But nothing is easy in this life, everything is difficult.”
Canelo is currently gearing up for a super-middleweight title unification bout with WBO belt holder Billy Joe Saunders.
The 30-year-old’s clash with the undefeated Saunders will take place a week on Sunday in front of a packed crowd at Cowboys Stadium in Dallas, Texas.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
