Yildirim, ‘Canelo’s’ rival, is motivated: “We are going to bring the belt to our country”.

Turkey’s Avni Yildirim will travel to the United States this Friday after obtaining the required visa for his date with Mexican fighter Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez on February 27 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, for the World Boxing Association and World Boxing Council super middleweight titles.

The fight between ‘Canelo’ Alvarez and Avni Yildirim will be broadcast in Latin America, with the exception of Brazil, on ESPN KNOCKOUT

“Since my last fight, I have faced some difficulties. The pandemic affected me, but we were patient and we were training. We prepared in the United States and Germany for 21 months. I never gave up. We will look for every opportunity to win this fight,” Yildirim said in conference from Turkey.

“I trust my coach Joel Diaz. It is a great honor to represent my country on such a big platform. Nobody gives the Turkish fighter a chance, but we will do our best to bring the belt to our country,” added Yildirim, who is 29 years old and has a record of 21-2 with 12 knockouts.

Joel Diaz, trainer of the Turkish Yildirim, said he was satisfied with the work done in Turkey, land of the challenger. “Everything is fine, an objective was accomplished, but once we have Yildirim’s visa, it’s time to go to California, where we will close the sparring, do the last training sessions and on February 21 we will go to Miami”, he said.

Joel said that there is no concern about the weight issue with Avni, so the only task will be to adapt to the schedule of the American continent. “The only thing is that we have to acclimatize, from there on we are fine,” said the Michoacan-born fighter, considered one of the best trainers today with fighters like Murodjon Akhmadaliev, double Super Bantamweight world champion, and Israil Madrimov, a dangerous Super Welterweight contender.

Tickets for the event through the Ticketmaster website range from 93 dollars to 6 thousand dollars, although in resale they can cost more than 13 thousand dollars. Sources close to the organization revealed that 2,000 more seats could be added if the 15,000 available are sold out by the end of the week.