Terence "Bud" Crawford and Vasiliy Lomachenko are names routinely placed in the No. 1 spot in pound-for-pound rankings. Knowing his name is not included alongside the two is eating at Saul "Canelo" Alvarez ahead of his showdown with WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev this Saturday in Las Vegas.
"I've done better than they have," Alvarez told reporters Tuesday after his "grand arrival" for the bout at MGM Grand this weekend. "I've done things that are better than they have done. It's never really not allowed me to sleep, to not be No. 1 pound-for-pound. Because at the end, there's somebody who puts you there. Maybe those people don't like me, and they'll never place me at No. 1. The only point here is I felt No. 1 my entire life. That's why I have reached where I've reached. Ever since I started my profession, I felt No. 1. And I continue feeling the same way. And I continue training as though I were No. 1, and I'll continue doing that my entire life."
The CBS Sports pound-for-pound rankings currently place Canelo at No. 5. Defeating Kovalev in what amounts to a two-weight class jump would be a resume-building moment in an already accomplished career for the Mexican superstar.
But hurt feelings over pound-for-pound rankings aren't the only thing troubling the Canelo camp. A report from The Athletic pointed out that Oscar De La Hoya, founder of Golden Boy Promotions, which promotes Alvarez, has been barred from the training camp. The rift between the two sites has been growing for months, leading to pointed words from Alvarez.
"You can see there's no loyalty in him," Alvarez told The Athletic. "He changed trainers during his career. He changed managers in his career. So there's no loyalty. That's the way he is. We see it now."
What impact these potential distractions have on Alvarez's risky challenge against the heavy-hitting Kovalev remains to be seen. But he's locked in on his desire to be No. 1 in the pound-for-pound discussion.
"Of course, history, your resume, that's what places you at No. 1," Alvarez said Tuesday. "There can't be anything else. [A fighter] that embraces fights, history, and who you fight, championships - everything."
