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LAS VEGAS – Canelo Alvarez didn’t callously claim recently that Ryan Garcia is “wasting” his talent.
The measured Mexican icon issued his opinion of Garcia’s career publicly to serve as “constructive criticism” of his stablemate, in hopes of motivating the former WBC interim lightweight champion once he recovers from recent surgery on his fractured right hand. Alvarez surprised some within the boxing community by openly admonishing Garcia during a recent interview with Complex, but he didn’t backtrack from anything he told that website when asked about his quotes following his “grand arrival” at MGM Grand on Tuesday for his super middleweight title unification fight against Caleb Plant on Saturday night.
Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) hasn’t spoken to Garcia since his comments became public knowledge because he has been focused on training for the Plant fight and Garcia is recuperating from a procedure performed October 18 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
“I haven’t talked to him, no, because he’s just recovering from his surgery,” Alvarez told a small group of reporters at MGM Grand. “But what I said about him, it wasn’t meant in a bad way. It was meant to be constructive criticism. I want him to take it that way and get the motivation to get on the right track once again.”
The 23-year-old Garcia (21-0, 18 KOs) has experienced a trying year since he got off the canvas to stop since-retired British contender Luke Campbell (20-4, 16 KOs) in the seventh round January 2 at American Airlines Center in Dallas.
The Victorville, California, native withdrew from a scheduled fight against Javier Fortuna in mid-April to focus on his mental health. Six months later, he pulled out of a November 27 fight against Joseph Diaz Jr., who defeated Fortuna by unanimous decision July 9 after replacing Garcia, due to a hand injury sustained during training.
Guadalajara’s Alvarez and Garcia both are trained by Eddy Reynoso. Alvarez has served as a mentor of sorts to Garcia since the younger fighter hired Reynoso as his trainer, which was why the established superstar felt the need to constructively criticize Garcia.
“Look, Ryan has a lot of talent,” Alvarez told Complex. “But to me, in my eyes, he’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent. I look at him and don’t see him 100-percent dedicated. And, to us, that’s a bad signal. We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train and to learn because you need to be in the gym. You’re learning day-by-day, at the very minimum fighting five times a year. When I was beginning my career, I did 15 fights in one year. That’s where I was at the beginning of my career. So definitely, he needs to be a little more dedicated.”
Alvarez’s showdown with Plant will mark his fourth fight in less than 11 months. Garcia has boxed just once since February 2020.
Alvarez, 31, and Plant, 29, will fight for Alvarez’s WBA, WBC and WBO 168-pound crowns and Plant’s IBF belt in a Showtime Pay-Per-View main event at MGM Grand Garden Arena ($79.99; 9 p.m. EDT). Caesars Sportsbook lists Alvarez as a 9-1 favorite to beat Plant (21-0, 12 KOs), an Ashland City, Tennessee, native who will take a steep step up in competition against a four-division champion commonly considered the best boxer, pound-for-pound, in the sport.
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.