Saul Canelo Alvarez has revealed how he thinks a fight with Floyd Mayweather would go down if they had fought when the Mexican was in his prime.
Alvarez’s only defeat of his career came against boxing legend Mayweather back in September 2013 by majority decision when he was just 23.
‘Money’ Mayweather famously never lost a fight during his career, despite stepping into the ring 50 times professionally.
And, Canelo, who is now a unified super middleweight world champion at the age of 30, insists that Mayweather would have been scared to put his belts on the line if he was in the sort of form he’s been in for years now.
Speaking to Graham Bensinger on his self-titled show, Alvarez said: “He’d have nothing to do with me.
“If we were both at our prime, our best prime, he wouldn’t anything do with me. Nothing.
“I’d knock him out.”
Explaining though how that fight helped to turn him into the world-beater he is today, Alvarez admits that the blow only made him more determined to become a world champion.
“I wasn’t the boxer I am today,” he added of why he lost. “For me, that moment hurt a lot. I got to thinking, I’m not going to let this kill my dreams.
“Someday I’m going to be the best boxer in the world. And now, today I am.”
Alvarez’s long-time trainer Jose ‘Chepo’ Reynoso also believes that the defeat to Mayweather taught him that he has to keep going even when times are tough.
“That fight taught him to continue working, and to keep moving forward,” he told Bensinger.
“Saul had never lost a fight, and that night he lost his undefeated status.
“Many boxers say ‘I’m not good anymore’. They give up - not us.
“You can’t just stay there, crying over a defeat.
“Only the one who doesn’t fight, doesn’t lose, but he will never win.”
