Canelo Alvarez has been critical in the past of Ryan Garcia not putting in enough effort while Garcia trained in the same gym as him.

Garcia’s former mentor also suggested Wednesday that he could’ve made a better effort to get up in the seventh round and continued to fight against Gervonta Davis. Alvarez acknowledged that body shots can be damaging, but he doesn’t believe Garcia should’ve remained on one knee while referee Thomas Taylor counted him out April 22 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“That takes a lot [out of you],” Alvarez told Fight Hub TV in Guadalajara, Mexico. “But, you know, we are fighters. We need to get up.”

Alvarez, who hasn’t been knocked out in any of his 62 professional fights, was asked about the Davis-Garcia bout after a press conference at Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara to promote his fight against John Ryder on Saturday night in nearby Zapopan, Mexico.

“That’s a good fight, but I think there [was] gonna be a little more action from them two,” Alvarez said. “But it’s just Gervonta’s too good.”

Baltimore’s Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) first dropped Garcia (23-1, 19 KOs) with a short counter left on the inside. Garcia went down with 1:01 to go in the second round, but he reached his feet almost immediately and kept fighting.

Davis drilled him five rounds later with a perfectly placed left to Garcia’s body, which caused a delayed reaction and made him take a knee with 1:30 remaining in the seventh round. Garcia alluded to an existing rib injury sustained during a sparring session when he spoke to former trainer Joe Goossen soon after their fight ended.

Alvarez and Garcia have at times been critical of one another since Garcia split with Eddy Reynoso, one of Alvarez’s career-long trainers, to work with Goossen in February 2020. Garcia parted ways with Goossen since his loss to Davis last month.

The 32-year-old Alvarez unloaded on Garcia once Garcia predicted the four-division champion would lose to rival Gennadiy Golovkin in their third fight last September 17 at T-Mobile Arena (https://www.boxingscene.com/canelo-blasts-ryan-garcia-hes-ungrateful-accomplished-nothing-owes-reynoso-money-wont-beat-tank--167313). Among other things, Alvarez predicted before their fight was made that Garcia would not defeat Davis if they eventually fought.

Guadalajara’s Alvarez (58-2-2, 39 KOs) will fight for the first time Saturday night since he unanimously out-pointed Kazakhstan’s Golovkin (42-2-1, 37 KOs) in their third bout 7½ months ago. He’ll defend his IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO super middleweight titles against London’s Ryder (32-5, 18 KOs) in the main event of a DAZN Pay-Per-View show at a sold-out Akron Stadium in Zapopan.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.