Canelo Alvarez has a very strong case for being the greatest of all time in his own discipline, but the pound-for-pound boxing king has had his say on football’s GOAT.
The Mexican became the first undisputed world super-middleweight champion in the early hours of Sunday morning, knocking out Caleb Plant in Las Vegas.
Alvarez already held the WBA Super, WBC and WBO straps, but added Plant’s IBF belt to his collection after his 11th round knockout victory.
The four-weight world champion is rightly lauded as the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet and offered his view on the heavyweight match-up between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
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Between them, Ronaldo and Messi have won 11 of the last 12 Ballon d’Ors, the award which recognises the best player in the world.
The debate over who is the greatest has been going on for almost two decades and now Alvarez, 31, has given his view.
Asked about Messi, Canelo said: “One of the best players. I like him. I think maybe he would be a great fighter.
But when asked about Ronaldo he somewhat less enthusiastically referred to him as just a “great player”.
Canelo was previously compared to Messi and Ronaldo thanks to his dominance of the sport and admitted he never thought he would reach a level where those comparisons could ever be made.
"Sometimes I believe it and sometimes I think that I'm happy and grateful," he said last month. "I never imagined getting all this. I imagined being the best boxer, but I never thought it would be this magnitude, I feel very happy and this motivates me to continue to triumph and make history."
When it came to his sporting GOAT, the boxer overlooked both footballers, instead pointing to golfing superstar Tiger Woods.
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In terms of athletes in his own sphere, he said of heavyweight king Tyson Fury : “He’s a good boxer. Really good skills. I watched his fight with Deontay Wilder, really good fight.”
On Fury’s rival Anthony Joshua, Canelo added: “Really nice guy and a good boxer with lots of skills.
He then spoke in glowing terms about Ireland’s world champion and Olympic gold medallist Katie Taylor.
“I saw her, she’s a really good fighter. I loved watching her.”
