By Tom Drury: On September 14th, Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will take place at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in the hotly anticipated “Blockbuster” fight of the decade. Floyd Mayweather the pound for pound best and boxing’s biggest draw has dominated the sport for 17 years, outclassing and outsmarting all comers (44) in total, all coming up short on there quest to break the “Money Code”.
Saul Alvarez, the young Mexican fighter and superstar in the making is next in line to face off against the pound for pound best, unfortunately for Alvarez. I among others feel this fight has come too soon. Alvarez without question has earned his shot at the big time with a show of maturity, skills and smarts in his most recent victory over the talented Austin “No Doubt” Trout. Fans were quick to call that victory controversial. However, watching and analyzing the fight many times there is no doubt Alvarez won the fight, albeit the open scoring was a factor.
Analyzing these two fighters (Mayweather/Alvarez) and there journey as professional boxers, I cannot overlook the fact that is, there is an overwhelming gulf in class. Boxing followers believe you should not and cannot compare opposition over fighters careers as “styles make fights” while I agree some what. This does not apply when facing Floyd Mayweather. The fact surrounding Mayweather’s boxing skills is that no fighter does or can do what he does. There is no opponent in the game that can prepare a man for a fight with Mayweather. To quickly explain this, Robert Guerrero looked solid and rough against Selcuk Aydin and Andre Berto but looked amateur and weak against Mayweather. Shane Mosley looked savage and machine like in his demolition job of Antonio Margarito in 2009, but was lost and outclassed in there against Mayweather. Victor Ortiz while a questionable heart there was no question of it in the Berto bout. Ortiz was powerful, full of heart, energetic, granite chinned, yet was made to look like a fool and his skills mocked by the greatness of Mayweather leading Ortiz to frustration and resorting to illegal headbutts. Juan Manuel Marquez one of the most technically gifted boxers of all time, yet looked loose, overmatched and vulnerable in every round of the Mayweather fight.
Where is the valid argument for an Alvarez victory on Sept 14. The only argument I see is one of “if he lands” (which is debatable in itself as Shane Mosley believes Mayweather and Alvarez possess the same kind of power) “he is the next pound for pound”, there is no argument based on boxing knowledge, age will not be a factor in this fight, skills will prevail as always in a Floyd Mayweather fight. After many years of following the Mayweather career another major factor presents itself, he has no flaws in his technique, style or boxing brain. Trainers and fighters respectively have tried to expose or seek out an opening in the Mayweather style to no avail.
Flaws are visible and exposed in many good and great fighters. Miguel Cotto hangs his head too low and hand too high (sucker for the uppercut). Ricky Hatton always lowered the right hand when throwing a left hook (hence the Paquiao KO) Austin Trout a southpaw but always moves to the left against orthodox fighters (just asking for that big straight right). Mayweather has no visible flaw, he controls the tempo of every fight and takes away the positives of his opponent and turns it into a negative, without question when watching Mayweather you know you are watching the smartest fighter to ever grace the squared circle.
Mayweather will be victorious in this fight and convincingly. The question is after beating the Mexican who seemingly is the next pound for pound best and successor to Mayweather’s throne, where does Mayweather go next in his remaining four fights?
Floyd “Money” Mayweather will not be beaten unless a fighter emerges that can do everything Mayweather does but better. The most interesting fight in boxing for the pure pugilist fan is a Mayweather Vs Broner match up. That fight needs to happen before Mayweather cashes out in 30 months.
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