Trainer and manager Eddy Reynoso has hit back at critics who have complained about the lack of resistance put up by WBC mandatory contender Avni ‘Mr Robot’ Yildirim 21-3 (12) against his fighter WBC and WBA super middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez 55-1-2 (37).
The 30-year-old Mexican superstar stopped Yildirim on his stool at the end of the third round at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Saturday night. Alvarez will now head into a unification bout with WBO titleholder Billy Joe Saunders 30-0 (14) on Cinco de Mayo before a potential fight with IBF beltholder Caleb ‘Sweethands’ Plant 21-0 (12) in September.
“We are not responsible for who the number one contender is,” Reynoso said. “I don’t pick and choose that. We made an agreement before we fought Callum Smith that if we came out victorious against Callum, we would fulfill the commitment of facing Avni Yildirim. Callum Smith did the same thing if he were victorious that night.
“I don’t make the rankings. Somebody else does and we are just trying to follow the path that will guide us to collect all the championship belts at 168 pounds. Avni was the mandatory challenger we had to fight him in order to face Saunders in May.
“We are looking at Las Vegas for May 8th. Hopefully, it will be open to the public. If not, perhaps Dallas. We’re not sure of the venue at this point but those are the two places I’m looking at.
“Our plan is to fight three or four times this year and to make Canelo the undisputed super middleweight champion of the world.”
Yildirim was warned by his trainer Joel Diaz at the end of the third round that if he didn’t show him something, he would stop the fight. The 29-year-old Turk was unresponsive on his stool so Diaz retired his fighter before the start of the fourth to prevent him from sustaining any further punishment.
WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman watched the fight unfold from ringside.
“I’m sorry for Avni. The paper sometimes doesn’t reflect the actions and it was very unfortunate,” Sulaiman told Boxing Social.
“We had great expectations and it’s a matter where we need to look into the process that is not working in some roads.
“Definitely, there are things that we have to go back and look at what is happening and how things evolve. As I say, [Canelo] was tremendously successful, he was in great shape, and that stage should have been for a much greater fight.”
Sulaiman is expecting a much more competitive fight between Alvarez and Saunders.
“Tremendous, he’s got a sight in unifying the whole division,” he said. “That’s a process in how it begins and we can see a very active year and hopefully it’ll continue to be like that for Canelo and boxing. A tremendous match, it’s going to be a sensational fight.”
