By Victor Salazar
New York - The trainer of WBC middleweight champion Miguel Cotto (40-4, 33 KO’s), Freddie Roach, has been known to voice a strong opinion on his fighters and their opponents. This time he made a comment about Cotto’s opponent on November 21, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (45-1,1, 32 KO’s) being lazy. Roach says the comment stems from when Alvarez trained in one of his gyms for his last couple of fights.
“Wild Card West is one of my gyms and he went there for three of his fights,” Roach told BoxingScene.com. “I had reports of when he showed up and when he didn’t and he didn’t show up every day. But when you’re a young fighter you can get away with it. He won’t get away with that with Miguel so he better not miss any days.”
Roach also has been unimpressed with Canelo’s recent performances but says he did what he had to do to get here. Come November 21st, he has a real fight on his hands.
“James Kirkland was out of jail and was inactive for two years, c’mon now,” Roach said “But he did what he was supposed to do and won his fights and we won our fights and that’s how we made this fight. Our last opponent was a two time world champion (Daniel Geale) but GGG (Gennady Golovkin) knocked him out before so he may have be done before that but we took care of business. That’s why this fights here now. This a not a tune-up fight for anyone and that’s we signed up for.”
What has Roach signed up for? He says an all action fight between two of the sport’s biggest fighters.
“Their (Cotto and Canelo) styles matchup very well. If we’re going to put fights on pay-per-view, we can’t pout sh*tty fights. I think this would sell well on pay-per-view. The best man will win”