Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez claims close friend Ryan Garcia is 'wasting his talent'.

The American turned professional under Canelo Alvarez's coach Eddy Reynoso at the age of 17 and scored a first-round knockout of Edgar Meza on his debut in 2016. 

However, his career has somewhat stalled and, despite showing flashes of obvious talent, it has now hit the buffers. Indeed, Garcia has fought just twice inside the ring since November 2019.

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Now, granted, that isn't exactly his fault - he has had a fair number of injuries over the years, and recently went public about his battles with mental health earlier this year.  

Following his victory over Luke Campbell in January, he withdrew from his scheduled November 17 main event against Joseph Diaz Jr after undergoing surgery on his injured right wrist. 

And while he can be excused for pulling out due to injury, Alvarez had some strong words for his young protégé. He was quoted in Complex as saying: "Look, Ryan has a lot of talent. But to me in my eyes, he’s wasting a lot of time and wasting his talent.

"I look at him and don’t see him 100 percent dedicated and, to us, that’s a bad signal."

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Canelo Alvarez congratulates Ryan Garcia after beating Luke Campbell

Canelo, 30, insists this isn't the first time he has tried to convince Garcia to take the sport more seriously. The Mexican is also unhappy with his inactivity, adding 'he needs to be a little more dedicated'. 

He added: "We always remind him as a team to come to the gym, to train, and to learn because you need to be in the gym.

"You’re learning day-by-day, at the very minimum fighting five times a year.

"When I was beginning my career, I did 15 fights in one year.

"That’s where I was at the beginning of my career.

"So definitely he needs to be a little more dedicated."

But for now, Alvarez has his own battle to face: he will challenge Caleb Plant for the IBF super-middleweight title this weekend. 

Mexico's Alvarez, who holds the WBA, WBC, WBO and Ring Magazine titles, will look to add another belt to his collection and inflict a first defeat of Plant's career on his opponent when they meet in Las Vegas. 

However, Andre Ward feels he will have his work cut, as he insists Plant is no pushover

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