Who was Canelo Álvarez’s first boxing trainer?

Throughout his career as a professional boxer, one of the most characteristic features of Canelo Alvarez has been your loyalty with the corner of Eddy Reynoso, because he has never trained under the orders of another character. However, long before consolidating himself in the amateur sphere, as well as in the world elite, who came to be considered the best pound for pound in the world trained under the orders of another rarely recognized character.

In an interview with Marco Antonio Barrera for the podcast One More Round, Rigobert The Spanish Álvarez He recalled the first steps of his brother Saúl in the sport of gloves, as well as the moment in which he discovered his talent. Even at the moment he saw him execute his first blows, he classified it as a “diamond in the rough” and decided to teach him the basics of discipline.

After having tried his luck in Tijuana, Baja California to catapult his career, and noticing the reduced economic gain for his work as a boxer, the Español he returned to Guadalajara with the decision to completely abandon the discipline. At that time, when he decided to leave the sport for good, the qualities of his younger brother they made him try your luck as an amateur manager and coach.

According to his testimony, when he returned home after the bland path he had on the northern border of Mexico, Saúl received him with the expectation of receiving some boxing gloves as a gift.. After giving his car keys to Canelo so that he would look for the precious object, Rigoberto discussed with his mother the decision of his definitive retirement, but seeing his brother throw his first blows changed his mind.

“The little boy disappeared for a little while and then he arrived with 10 children. In the garage of my mom’s house he put on the gloves. She was talking to my mom about the fact that she was going to retire me and I was going to dedicate myself to the paleterías and the boy surprised me (…) I saw that he started throwing blows but then he was crying and I stopped everything. I told my mom, ‘hey, have you seen your son yet?’ Of course she didn’t notice and I told her ‘he’s a diamond in the rough, he’s great’ ”he remembered.

The next decision on his return to the state of Jalisco was to prepare his brother in the garage of his parents’ house to direct him to his best level. His plan was to show you the basics of the sport every day before going to sleep, but before starting his plan he had to make sure that Saul’s genuine desire was to venture into his role as a boxer.

“That was when I asked him if he wanted to be a fighter and he told me ‘yes, I want to be like you’. I told him ‘I think you’re not going to be like me, I think you’re going to be someone much better than me, bigger. I’m watching’. I told him ‘I want you here every day, at this same time when I get home from work and we’re going to train right here’. Our ring was the garage,” she declared.

Since then, the objective of the pair of brothers was to make worthy fights in the amateur field to be able to fight for national decorations. Thus, after having directed his brother in 29 unofficial brawlssought an opportunity at the State Council for Sports Development (CODE) in his state to be part of the team, but as he did not have the support of a gym, he received a negative response.

His persistence paid off when the manager of the boxing division accepted the request of the Español by measure Canelo against the best exponent of 54 kilograms at that time. The young Saúl rode without an official uniform, but managed to settle the brawl over the way of knockout in the second round. It was there when the managers of the team chose to integrate him into their ranks.

After having obtained silver in the National Olympiad, Rigoberto chose to offer his brother to the stable of Chepo Reynoso though did not stop following his career closely. From the age of 14, Eddy’s father was in charge of preparing him for his professional debut at the age of fifteen, but as of October 29, 2005, the youngest of the dynasty was the one who took charge of carrying Canelo Álvarez has the elite sporty.

KEEP READING: