With his date with destiny only three weeks away, Avni Yildirim can shock the boxing world and dethrone unified super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez, says the Turkish challenger’s trainer Joel Diaz.
Ahead of their February 27 clash at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Yildirim is currently a 12-1 outsider against WBA ‘Super’ and WBC title holder Canelo, and few outside the challenger’s immediate circle give him a chance of victory.
But the respected Diaz is in that sphere and believes Yildirim (21-2 12 KOs) is a different animal to the fighter who lost previously to Chris Eubank Jr. (LKO3) and Anthony Dirrell (LTD10). Diaz and Yildirim have had plenty of time to iron out the challenger’s raw edges, having originally linked up in October 2019 before the Covid-19 Pandemic intervened.
The fight with Canelo (54-1-2, 36 KOs) will, therefore, be their first together and Diaz believes that Yildirim’s technical improvement will be striking.
“Avni came to Indio and in the first week of training he fell in love with my work,” said Diaz. “He was the happiest guy I’ve ever met because this guy is not only a gym rat and a hard worker, but he’s a smart fighter, he loves learning. A lot of the things he never learned in his career, he’s learned them now, and he loves the work I put in, and it doesn’t matter how hard the work is, he never complains.
“That’s the reason I like Avni, any trainer would like to have him, he just does what you tell him to do. He’s a true soldier – you tell him to do something, he just does it. Avni may be an underdog but he doesn’t care what anybody says, he’s fighting for his country and he’s going to shock the world.
“He’s a completely different fighter from when he fought Dirrell and Chris Eubank Jr. I said to him, you are a physically stronger guy than Dirrell but you had no defence. That’s why they called him ‘Mr Robot’, but there’s no robot in him now, I can tell you. I made a complete transformation because I dedicated time to him. The Covid situation helped him in a way because there was nothing to do, there were no fights, so just to keep him busy we would go to the gym and work on technique and making him a better fighter.”
Main image: Matchroom Boxing USA.