Canelo Alvarez Now Reveals He Also Had a Severe Rib Injury Prior to the Bivol Fight in Latest Interview: “it Affected Me Deeply, I Shouldn’t Have Lost! I Am Simply Better Than Him!”

“I wasn’t 100% physically. My hand wasn’t 100%, and I couldn’t train 100%. A week before the fight, I suffered a rib injury during training,” said Canelo Alvarez to Hugo Sanchez Presenta, discussing what went wrong in his loss to Dmitry Bivol last year. It seems like Canelo is still trying to make sense of what happened to him in his loss to Bivol. So, instead of his mind accepting the bitter truth about him not being good enough, it’s protecting him by blaming the defeat on injuries. Yeah, it’s kind of pathetic, but it’s a classic defense mechanism that fighters have to shield themselves from the truth. If Canelo fully accepted the reality of what happened to him on that night, it could ruin his self-confidence. Canelo insists that the reason he lost to Bivol is because he fought with a hand & rib injury and that he shouldn’t have gone through with the fight in the physical state that he was in. “I shouldn’t have fought. That defeat is still a pain in my heart; I still haven’t gotten over that moment,” said Canelo. “It affected me deeply because I shouldn’t have lost; I am simply better than him.”​ Alvarez’s loyal, adoring boxing fans have bought into the injury excuses that he’s used to explain away his defeat to Bivol, but their belief will disappear if he were to fight him a second time and get schooled once again. Hence, Canelo is fighting Jermell, and after him, he’s expected to face his inactive twin brother, middleweight Jermall Charlo, who hasn’t fought in 2 1/2 years.