Hunter: Khan had to persuade me that Álvarez was a risk worth taking

Still, it was Khan that had to talk Hunter into taking this fight. “I didn’t like it, first and foremost because of the size difference and the inactivity,” Hunter said. “The most crucial thing was I asked him why he wanted the fight and the answer that he gave me was what in line with what I felt he needed to have a chance to win the fight.

Hunter, unlike Khan, has been in the opposite corner to Álvarez before

ANDREW COULDRIDGE /REUTERS

“He said, ‘I can’t stand in front of him, I can’t stand on the ropes, I can’t reach out and grab him because of his uppercuts.’ So that let me know right away that he was correctly seeing what he needed to see and what he could and couldn’t do.”

Hunter, 62, has been involved with big fights before. He was in the corner with Andre Berto when Floyd Mayweather last boxed in September. He has had memorable nights with Andre Ward, his most famous pupil, and been in the opposite corner to Álvarez before, as trainer to Alfredo Angulo, another Mexican.

He puts Angulo’s one-sided loss down to his inability to stay in shape rather than Álvarez’s ability.

“They waited until the last minute to give him the fight and knew he was 30lb heavy, so the whole camp was a fat farm,” Hunter said. “But it told me something about Canelo’s power. He hit Angulo with every punch in the book and then some, Angulo never even took a backward step. And he was a dead man going into the fight because he had to take so much weight off.”

Indeed Hunter seems not particularly keen to say anything too positive about Álvarez, who is being billed as the sport’s biggest star in the post Mayweather era. Álvarez was just 23 when he lost to Mayweather. The tale put out by his promoters, Golden Boy, is that he has improved since.

“People say he has got better since Floyd,” Hunter said. “I don’t necessarily agree with that; I say his opponents have been worse.

“They keep talking about Canelo’s power, but that the only 154 [light-middleweight] guy he ever stopped was James Kirkland, who hadn’t fought in 1½ years, was 200lb and they gave him seven weeks’ notice.”

Hunter is softly spoken but seems to have got through to Khan. The boxer’s previous trainer was Freddie Roach, whose Wild Card gym in Hollywood welcomed in everyone, boxers, actors, keep-fitters, even fans.

There is no such welcome at Hunter’s gym on an industrial estate in Hayward, California, just south of Oakland. No one gets in without Hunter’s approval and that invitation can be withdrawn at a moment’s notice.

Focus has often been a problem with Khan, most famously when he let his heart rule his head and was stopped by Danny García in 2012. Last year, when he struggled to get past Chris Algieri, Hunter said his mind was elsewhere.

“A couple of times I went to his suite, his family and everyone was there,” Hunter said. “I told him he was going to have a tough fight.

“He doesn’t know the meaning of isolating himself and putting himself in a compartment of preparation where you are mad at the world. I remember telling Shah [Khan’s father] that he shouldn’t have his people around him. Shah said, ‘He’s happy like that.’ I don’t want him happy, I want him mad, I want him belligerent, I want him snapping at me.

“When you are a winner - and you have to say he is a winner with his pedigree - he is not the only one that doesn’t take every opponent like he should. There are only a couple of fighters who take every opponent serious, that’s Floyd Mayweather and Andre Ward. They treat everyone the same, whether they be King Kong or Cheetah.”

Alvarez v Khan is live on BoxNation