Canelo doesn’t like Mayweather vs. McGregor fight

By Boxing News - 02/21/2017 - Comments

Image: Canelo doesn’t like Mayweather vs. McGregor fight

By Jeff Aranow: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez doesn’t care for the idea of Floyd Mayweather Jr. facing UFC star Conor McGregor in a boxing match. Canelo thinks it’s a bad idea for the sport for a fight between Mayweather and a fighter that has never boxed before in 28-year-old McGregor.

The Mayweather vs. McGregor fight has a lot of hurdles to overcome before it can take place right now, and it remains to be seen if Mayweather can negotiate it. McGregor is under contract with the UFC, and they might not agree to the fight.

“I think it’s a joke for boxing if that happens,” said to media earlier today.

Canelo is just calling it like he sees it. Mayweather-McGregor is not a great fight on paper. Without McGregor proving himself in some tune-up fights inside the boxing ring against top contenders or world champions, it does not look good if Mayweather fights him unless he does it in the UFC.

Canelo’s thoughts on the Mayweather-McGregor fight are echoed by a lot of boxing fans, as well as MMA fans. It really wouldn’t be a fair fight due to McGregor being essentially a novice with no experience at all in the boxing ring. McGregor would come into the fight with Mayweather with a 0-0 record. You don’t often see fighters making their debut against the very best fighter in boxing.

McGregor is a good fighter in his own sport in the UFC, but he still no experience all in boxing. The sparring video of McGregor on Youtube of him sparring boxer Chris Van Heerden was not impressive stuff. McGregor looked like someone that had laced up gloves for the first. Van Heerden, a former knockout victim of unbeaten welterweight contender Errol Spence Jr., had his way with McGregor in the sparring. The casual fans obviously wouldn’t be aware of how bad McGregor looked in the sparring with Van Heerden, and they would likely purchase the Mayweather-McGregor fight in large numbers of it takes place. However, there could be a backlash to the PPV market for boxing fans and even MMA if a lot of fans are angry at how one-sided the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight turns out to be.

We’ll see in the near future whether Mayweather ends up facing McGregor or not. Mayweather can’t afford to wait too long before facing McGregor because the longer he’s out of the ring the more likely fans will move on. For the Mayweather vs. McGregor fight to attract huge interest in the boxing and MMA world, the fight probably will need to take place soon. It’s been two years already since Mayweather last fought in 2015.

Canelo lost to Mayweather by a 12 round majority decision four years ago in 2013. He never was able to get a rematch with Mayweather despite being highly interested in facing him again.