By: Sean Crose
Back in 2013, Floyd Mayweather battled Canelo Alvarez in what was one of the most lucrative fights in history. Mayweather was already a legend. Canelo, on the other hand, was a fighter on the rise. And, while Canelo was certainly game, his lack of experience – coupled with Mayweather’s iconic skill set – led to his first and only defeat. Since that time, of course, Mayweather has – professionally, at least – ridden off into the sunset while Canelo has taken the mantel as the sport of boxing’s biggest name. Now the red haired star is in line to shockingly gun for a cruiserweight title after just having unified the super middleweight division. Mayweather weighed in on his former foe this week in Mexico for the WBC’s 2021 Convention.
“We like Canelo Alvarez,” he says on a video from FightHub. “He’s a hell of a fighter, but Gervonte ‘Tank’ Davis, Errol spence, Terence Crawford, there’s so many great fighters out there.” Mayweather also mentioned a fighter who would love nothing more than to get Canelo in the ring. “Just my honest opinion,” says Mayweather, “Benavidez is a hell of a fighter also.” That might be good for Benavides to hear, but Canelo looks like he may be going in a far heavier direction – at least for now.
The Canelo who fought Mayweather was a far smaller fighter than the Canelo who knocked out Caleb Plant in order to become an undisputed champion a few weeks back. Still, it’s hard to forget a fight as big as Mayweather-Canelo was back in 2013. “We had a chance to clash two undefeated fighters,” Mayweather says in the video, “and we gave people what they wanted to see. It was a hell of a chess match.” Although he’s known to like to be in the spotlight, Mayweather goes on to admit that Canelo is currently “one of the faces of the sport of boxing.”
As for the recent rumor that he’s going to get back in the ring with Julio Caesar Chavez for an exhibition match, Mayweather humorously states that’s not happening. “Oh, no, no, no,” he laughs when the matter is brought up. “He (Chavez) kept talking about he wanted to do an exhibition…I said I can use one hand if you want me to.” So there’s no Mayweather-Chavez fight on the horizon?
“That would tarnish his legacy,” says Mayweather, “as well as my legacy.”