Canelo Alvarez Blog Entry #3: Defining Long-Term Goals

WBC light-middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” explains his approach to defining future goals and how he’s staying focused on his May 5 pay-per-view matchup with Shane Mosley.

You’re a champion at age 21, so you’d appear to have a long road ahead. What are your long-term goals? Any fights you really want to make? Titles across multiple divisions? Pound-for-pound glory?

I don’t tend to think of the future in those specific of terms. Of course I have lot of personal goals as a fighter, as a man. I don’t tend to think about much besides the present and what I need to do now. Focus is something I pride myself on. It really is. I see in a lot of my peers a lack of focus on the fights themselves, and I wonder why some of them even fight. Sure it’s easy to get lost in the hoopla and the ‘what’s next’ discussion but if I don’t box the best I can right now, then there is no next. I am a professional boxer and my entire focus is winning these fights. I am training very had and making immense progress. The determination I have in training now will propel me to a victory on May 5^th, not thinking to what I have left to do. I am 21 so I know many opportunities will be presented and I look forward to them. But like I said, that doesn’t affect me as a fighter right now. I am proud of what I have accomplished so far and I will be proud to win on May 5^th. I’ve heard some people ask ‘well what if you don’t win?’ The truth is that isn’t an option to me. I don’t fathom any situation where I don’t win; that’s really it. But I know it won’t be easy, and I embrace the challenge whole-heartedly.

“Ring Kings: Mayweather vs. Cotto,” and Canelo Alvarez vs. Sugar Shane Mosley will take place Saturday, May 5 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas and will be produced and distributed live by HBO Pay-Per-View® beginning at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT. 

Episode three of HBO’s all-access reality series 24/7 MAYWEATHER/COTTO debuts on Saturday – April 28 (9:45-10:15 p.m. ET/PT) – while the finale debuts Friday, May 4 (8:00-8:30 p.m. ET/PT), the night before the high-stakes super welterweight title bout.  All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand^® and HBO GO^®.