By Paul Walsh; At the end of the final bell I couldn’t help but smile, “he’s done it again” I thought to myself. Floyd Mayweather Jr. made Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who is arguably the second best pound for pound fighter in the world look extremely average. Make no mistake Canelo is an exceptional fighter but Mayweather is a league of his own
At times it was nothing more than a glorified sparring season, a very well paid sparring session for the man they call money. The fight went exactly how I anticipated, Mayweather was too fast, too slick, too cute and too quick which Canelo simply did not have any answer to. Right from the first bell Mayweather showed how sharp he is and that the age factor was not going to play a part. In fact you would think that Floyd was the younger man based on the way he fought. Canelo came in 15 pounds heavier than Mayweather on the night and it showed, Canelo looked huge in comparison but unfortunately for him he couldn’t use this to his advantage as he wasn’t able to pin Mayweather down. Floyd’s superior movement and footwork kept him out of range and made Canelo look clumsy and flat footed for the majority of the contest.
Round after round the level in class showed in what could only be described as an exhibition of the sweet science, Mayweather dissected the young champion, beating him to the punch on every occasion, making him miss and out thinking him every time. Mayweather’s speed and accuracy surprised and frustrated Canelo which in turn spoiled the Mexicans work and took him completely off his game plan. I can count the number of times Canelo landed clean on Mayweather in the fight with one hand which speaks volumes for Mayweather’s performance. Let’s not forget Canelo is a top quality operator. He was unbeaten in 42 previous fights, beating everyone they put in front of him. Not only that he was being groomed as the successor to Mayweather’s P4P spot so there can be no excuses this time around from the critics, this was a genuine 50:50 fight.
We have a tendency to take the gloss of a Mayweather performance and so quick to write off any opponent he has faced. As soon as I took to the social networks after this fight I saw these types of comments flood in such as, “Mayweather is boring”, “Canelo was too young and experienced”, “Mayweather was always going to win this fight, he should fight Pacquiao” and so on. I think its time we start to appreciate the quality of the man and accept that we are witnessing greatness. In my opinion Floyd Mayweather is the greatest fighter of all time but I don’t think we will fully appreciate that until he retires from the sport. Whats more, he seems to be getting better with age and is showing no signs of letting up. I think the fact that he is older means he takes less chances in the build up to a fight and is more focused than ever on preparation. That can only come as bad news for everyone else as he is looking more and more invincible every time he steps into the ring. I personally think he will see out the remaining 4 fights of his show time contract undefeated making each fight look as easy as the last.
One things for sure, we will never see another fighter like Mayweather. So we should enjoy and celebrate him while he is still active because he is simply the best ever.
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