By Dan Ambrose: Another popular boxing figure is picking Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26 KO’s) to beat WBA/WBC junior middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (42-0-1, 26 KO’s) in their fight on September 14th. Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson believes Mayweather will come out on top in his match-up with the young but still very green 23-year-old Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Tyson told Dan Rafael of ESPN “It’s gonna be tough…I gotta go towards Floyd a little bit…we don’t know because Floyd is older. This guy [Canelo] is gonna hit him, but it’s just difficult to bet against Floyd…he’s been so superior over all the fighters during the duration of his career.”
The reason why it’s going to be tough isn’t because Mayweather’s age. That’s not the reason. The reason is he’s facing a guy that should arguably be fighting at middleweight or super middleweight in Canelo. We’re basically talking about Mayweather fighting a middleweight because that’s essentially what Canelo is.
He rehydrated to 172 lbs. for his last fight against Austin Trout last April; whereas WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin rehydrated to 170 lbs. for his last fight against Matthew Macklin, and he’s a middleweight. Canelo is rehydrating to 170+ and he’s a junior middleweight fighting a welterweight in Mayweather.
That’s the whole problem. Take away Canelo’s huge weight advantage and this fight isn’t difficult at all. If Mayweather were fighting a 150 lb. Canelo on September 14th, it wouldn’t be a problem at all for Mayweather because he would be facing someone his own weight, but that’s not what’s going to happen on September 14th.
Canelo will likely weigh in the mid-160s or lower 170s, and that’s going to give him a big weight advantage to go along with his power advantage. I’d prefer to see Canelo fighting guys his own weight like Golovkin or Sergio Martinez rather than taking on guys two divisions below him in weight like Mayweather.
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