Canelo Alvarez, Ricardo Alvarez and Their Trainers Eddie Reynoso and Chepo Reynoso Media Conference Call Transcript
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CANELO ALVAREZ, RICARDO ALVAREZ AND THEIR TRAINERS EDDIE REYNOSO AND CHEPO REYNOSO MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL TRANSCRIPT Kelly Swanson Thanks, everybody for joining us today. We’re very excited to feature the star of the Saturday, March 8fight, none other than Canelo Alvarez and his entire team: Ricardo Alvarez, his brother; Chepo Reynoso and Eddie Reynoso, both his trainers; and also Richard Schaefer, Chief Executive Officer of Golden Boy Promotions. Before I introduce Richard, I would like to say that this is our last press event before we head into fight week, and everybody please look for your fight week media schedules. We have great events planned for fight week and we hope to see you there. If you can’t make it to the fight, keep an eye on your inbox because we will be sending you all sorts of press materials to help your TOE TO TOE coverage, including live streams embedding codes, quotes and photos. As always, we appreciate your continuing support. At this point, I’ll turn it over to Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions. Richard Schaefer We have about a week and a half until the excitement of “TOE TO TOE” hits Las Vegas and fight fans around the world. It is an unbelievable card. It’s one of those cards as Golden Boy has become accustomed to for really top-to-bottom entertainment and great fights. We have some young, rising stars on the non-televised portion, and I was just actually adding up the records. If you look at the record of the guys they are fighting, it’s very similar with 185 wins and like 20 losses. So it’s very evenly matched, meaningful fights. We have the Olympian Jo-Jo Diaz fighting. We have Francisco Vargas, Will Tomlinson, Keandre Gibson, so a lot of great fights. And then we’re going to be moving into the first fight that will be televised on the free view, which is Jorge Linares against Nihito Arakawa, which is going to be nonstop TOE-TO-TOE action. We know that Arakawa is always an exciting guy and of course Linares is as well. Then, we go into the pay-per-view. Prior to the main event between Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Alfredo “El Perro” Angulo we’re going to have three world-title fights – yes, three world-title fights. Opening up the telecast is going to be another junior-middleweight title bout, which is going to be Carlos Molina from Michoacan, Mexico against Jermall Charlo from Houston, Texas. He is going to be challenging Carlos Molina for the IBF junior middleweight world title. Then next up is going to be Saul’s brother, Ricardo Alvarez, from Guadalajara, Mexico. He’s going to be challenging Omar Figueroa from Weslaco, Texas for the world title. Ricardo is excited, and in a minute you’re going to hear from him. Then we have one of the most exciting fighters irrespective of weight class, Leo Santa Cruz, defending his WBC super bantamweight world title against a true Mexican warrior, former world champion, in a very tough fight, Cristian Mijares, and finally, of course, we are going to go to the one we’ve all been waiting for, Saul Alvarez and “El Perro” Angulo. The fight, as you know, is at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. There are going to be some great fight-week activities planned. It’s promoted by Golden Boy Promotions and Canelo Promotions, and I’d like to think our sponsors as well, Corona, AT&T and Casamigos Tequila. There are still some tickets available. I do anticipate a sellout. I think we are like at 12,000 tickets sold, and I think the capacity is like 14,270, so a couple thousand tickets are left. The $25 seats are sold out. There are some left at $50, so make sure your readers and listeners know to snap up these tickets. There are also a few left at $600, $400, and $200. We are really excited to have Canelo back in a big night, and the man, the team I would rather say, who have been working with Canelo from a very early, Eddie Reynoso, his trainer – Canelo’s trainer and Ricardo Alvarez’s trainer – and Jose his father, Jose “Chepo” Reynoso, who is the manager for both Canelo and Ricardo and, as we all know, for many other former Mexican greats and world champions. It is a pleasure now for me to introduce first Eddie Reynoso who is going to give you guys some information as it relates to the training camp. Eddie Reynoso Good afternoon to everybody. Thank you for being here. Everything is going well. Training has gone very well, and we’re just waiting for the date of the fight. R. Schaefer Now I’d like to ask Chepo – Jose “Chepo” Reynoso – to say a few words about the camp. How is Canelo feeling? How is Ricardo feeling? How are they looking forward to this card? Chepo Reynoso Good afternoon to everybody. Thank you so much for being here. It’s been an intense camp. It’s been a lot of hard work because we know the significance – both Canelo and Ricardo know the significance of this bout and how important it is to them, and we’re just ready and looking forward to March 8 and putting on a great performance. Thank you. R. Schaefer So now, without further ado, I’d like to introduce to you the current WBC Continental Americas 140-pound champion. He’s the older brother of Mexico’s icon, Canelo. He made his U.S. boxing debut last December in San Antonio on the Dec. 14 card with a win over Rod Salka. He has been waiting for this opportunity. He is excited to be fighting in the boxing mecca of the world, Las Vegas, and of course having a shot at the WBC world champion Figueroa. Please welcome Ricardo “Dinamita” Alvarez. Ricardo Alvarez Thank you very much to everybody. Good morning. Well, we’re ready. We’re looking forward to fight night to get up in the ring and show everybody the hard work and everything that’s been realized throughout the camp, and ready for victory – ready to come back with the win. R. Schaefer Now here he is the one superstar from Mexico. I told you guys before already the ratings for his last fight set an all-time TV record in Mexico. He is exciting. He has that will and that fire to win. He has been a pro since 2005 when he was just 15 years old, he is without any question Mexico’s biggest boxing superstar, but really has clearly transcended here in the United States as well, has a huge following – and yes it has a little bit to do with his looks and the red hair and so on. He is a handsome guy, but at the end of the day it really is his fighting style and his charisma. He picked an opponent he knows who’s a tough guy, a big puncher who comes toe-to-toe, but that’s what Canelo wants. Canelo realizes that boxing is entertainment, and he is the ultimate entertainer. Please welcome Canelo Alvarez. Canelo Alvarez Well, thank you very much to everybody. Thanks for all the support, for being here, and I just want to let you know that I’m very excited. I’m very happy. We’re less than two weeks away, and I’m just looking forward to getting back in the ring and getting back on that victory road. Thank you. R. Schaefer Just a quick little side note about the excitement of this fight week and this particular fight as well. I got some information from the MGM and from SHOWTIME as well, they’ve been running contests – the same contest they ran when Canelo fought Mayweather – and the participation rate is almost as big as when he fought Floyd Mayweather. So we anticipate a big pay-per-view. We anticipate big excitement in Las Vegas in the venue as well, so really looking forward to that one. Having said that, I’d like to open it up now to the media, and you can ask questions from any of those participants. K. Swanson As we’re waiting for our first question, I do have a program note that ALL ACCESS: CANELO vs. ANGULO episode one premieres this Friday night, 9 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time on SHOWTIME. Q Canelo, I am wondering what was the lesson learned in the fight against Mayweather, and what will you bring from that fight into the ring, if anything, against Angulo? Canelo Well, I can’t pinpoint one thing because I learned a lot in that fight, so it wasn’t just one thing. But we did gain a lot of experience, and that will be noted in my fights in the future once I step into the ring to bring that out, and you will see that. Q I’m trying to get a sense from both the siblings as to the difference in excitement knowing that you’re both going to be fighting on the same night. I guess my first question is for Ricardo. Ricardo, for you this is completely new. You’re fighting on the undercard of your younger brother. Can you talk about generally about the excitement of that? R. Alvarez I’m very excited. I’m very motivated. I’m very happy to be fighting the most important fight of my life.