By: Sean Crose
Back in 2013, Floyd Mayweather fought Canelo Alvarez in the most lucrative fight in history. Mayweather is already a legend. On the other hand, Canelo is a fighter on the rise. And, while Canelo was certainly the match, his lack of experience – along with Mayweather’s iconic skill set – led to his first and only defeat. Of course, since that time, Mayweather – professionally at least – rides to watch the sun go down while Canelo has considered the hearth to be boxing’s biggest name sport. Now, the red-haired star is preparing an incredible shot for a cruiser title after just unifying the super-medium class. Mayweather weighed in on his old foe this week in Mexico for the WBC’s 2021 Conference.
“We like Canelo Alvarez,” he said on a video from FightHub. “He’s a hell of a fighter, but Gervonte ‘Tank’ Davis, Errol spence, Terence Crawford, there are a lot of great fighters out there.” Mayweather also mentioned a boxer who wants nothing more than to get Canelo “Just my honest opinion,” Mayweather said, “Benavidez is a hell of a fighter too.” That might be good for Benavides to hear, but Canelo sounds like he might be heading in a heavier direction – at least for the moment.
Canelo versus Mayweather is a much smaller boxer than Canelo, who knocked out Caleb Plant to become the undisputed champion a few weeks ago. Still, it’s hard to forget a fight as big as Mayweather-Canelo was in 2013. “We had the chance to take on two undefeated fighters,” Mayweather said in the video, “and we delivered. Show people what they want to see. It was an endgame. ” Although he is known to enjoy the spotlight, Mayweather went on to admit that Canelo is now “one of the faces of the sport of boxing.”
As for the recent rumor that he will be returning to the ring with Julio Caesar Chavez for an exhibition match, Mayweather humorously stated that it is not happening. “Oh, no, no, no,” he laughs when the matter is brought up. “He (Chavez) kept talking about how he wanted to do an exhibit… I said I could use one hand if you wanted to.” So there’s no Mayweather-Chavez fight on the horizon?
“That would tarnish his legacy,” Mayweather said, “as well as mine.”
