AVNI YILDIRIM’S trainer has been sent death threats following defeat to Canelo Alvarez, which left his fighter ‘crying in the bathroom’.
Coach Joel Diaz pulled out Yildirim before the fourth round against Canelo, having been dropped in the third.
Avni Yildirim with trainer Joel DiazCredit: Instagram @coachjoeldiaz
Canelo Alvarez beat Avni Yildirim by stoppageCredit: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom.
But Diaz – Mexican like Alvarez – was obscenely accused of throwing the fight in favour of the pound-for-pound king.
And Yildirim’s Turkish fans further turned on the cornerman, bombarding him with death threats.
Diaz told Ernesto Amador: “There are messages that I have from people in Turkey, where they are telling me that they are going to kill me because I sold out Yildirim, that instead of improving him I made him worse, that everything I did was worse.
“In fact, they are asking me how much Canelo paid me for putting my fighter in that position.
“[They say] ‘You are Mexican, Canelo is Mexican and we know he paid you a few million dollars to do that to Yildirim.
“I’m not selling myself so they can hurt a fighter.
“If the boxer wins and looks good, I win and I look good, so I wanted my fighter to shine.
“So people can say, ‘What a fight this bastard gave and Joel trained him’ – but it is not my fault that the boxer did not pay attention, because he did not do anything that we worked on in training camp.”
Yildirim, who was coming off a loss from 2019, had been mandated by the WBC to challenge Canelo, 30.
But he failed to live up to expectation, and was left heartbroken and distraught after the loss.
Diaz said: “He feels that he has disappointed his homeland and does not want to go back to Turkey. He cried in the bathroom and said nothing.”
Yildirim’s manager Ahmet Oner says that Canelo Alvarez would beat Anthony Joshua
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
