Canelo Alvarez has revealed the heartwarming reason he left his training camp ahead of one of the biggest fights of his career against Terence Crawford this weekend in defence of his undisputed super middleweight titles.
The Mexican left the gym behind briefly around four weeks ago to welcome his third daughter, Eva Victoria, with his wife Fernanda Gomez. Canelo admitted that attending the birth reminded him of why he fights and gave him extra motivation for Saturday’s fight.
Alvarez told the Daily Mail: “I left training to be at the birth of my daughter. I received my daughter, and everything was amazing.
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“It was so beautiful. But then I had to go back to my training camp. It was incredibly hard to be away from them.
“Especially when she had just arrived, but it made me feel motivated. I do everything for them. I will win this fight for them.”
This is Canelo’s fifth child – and his second with his wife of four years, Gomez.
His three other children – Emily Cinnamon, who arrived when the Mexican was just 17, Mia Ener, and Saul Adiel were all born to different mothers.
He will be hoping this added motivation will help him get over the line and beat the hungry challenger Crawford, who is vying to become a three-time undisputed champion and five-weight champion.
After being forced to vacate the IBF title, he reclaimed his undisputed super-middleweight championships in his last fight against William Scull, who had held the belt, before being comfortably outpointed by Canelo, who looked frustrated by Scull’s cat-and-mouse antics.
Crawford will be a different proposition; he is a fighter who does not fear exchanging and holds power in his hands with 31 knockouts in 41 wins, as well as an acute boxing intelligence, the likes of which is rarely seen.
If Canelo can defeat Crawford, his name will rise further through the ranks of the greatest fighters of all time.
