By: Hans Themistode
Canelo Alvarez is currently enjoying his time on top of the boxing world. The Mexican native is fresh off a dominant eighth-round stoppage victory over Billy Joe Saunders this past weekend. The win for Alvarez netted him another world title in the super middleweight division. Now, the 30-year-old is merely one belt away from becoming the first undisputed 168 pounder of all time.
While Alvarez is considered by most as the best fighter in the world, he still vividly remembers the night he fought Floyd Mayweather in 2013. The results were the same as every Mayweather fight, meaning, he dominated. At the time, Alvarez was still a fairly new face to the boxing world. The pound-for-pound star admits that he faced Mayweather entirely too young.
Now, however, with Alvarez feeling as though he has reached his peak, the unified super middleweight titlist believes that if they were both smack dab in the middle of their primes at the same time, the results would be vastly different.
“If we were both at our prime, our best prime, he’d have nothing to do with me,” said Alvarez during an interview with Graham Bensinger. “I’d knock him out.”
Since his lone defeat, Alvarez has gone on to win world titles at 160, 168 and 175 pounds. As for Mayweather, his career would carry on for another five fights, winning them all in one-sided fashion, before ultimately walking away from the sport. Shortly after his retirement, Mayweather was unsurprisingly inducted into the boxing Hall of Fame.
With his successful career officially behind him, Mayweather can’t help but laugh at the comments of Alvarez. Although the Mexican star continues to point to his age when he took on Mayweather, the 2020 Hall of Famer does the exact same.
“When Canelo fought me, he was in his prime. When I fought, I was an old man. I wasn’t in my prime when I fought Canelo, I was an old man.”
At the time of their showdown nearly a decade ago, Mayweather was considerably older at 36. Nevertheless, he easily outboxed Alvarez on the night. With Mayweather now set to return to the ring in an exhibition against YouTuber turned de-facto boxer, Logan Paul, on June 6th, he wants to put Alvarez in the rearview mirror and focus on the task at hand.
“I was an old man when I fought Canelo just like this right here. Even though I’m old, I got a lot of experience. I’m a go out there and just show him (Logan Paul) that this is the elite level and this is something totally different.”
