By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr. gave Billy Joe Saunders a warning on Tuesday in saying he shouldn’t “overlook” Canelo Alvarez when the two of them fight on May 2 in their unification match at 168.
Canelo vs. Saunders still isn’t official for May 2, but it’s expected to be announced shortly. Like a lot of boxing fans, Mayweather is assuming that Canelo will be fighting the WBO super middleweight champion Saunders (29-0, 14 KOs) next
In part of his speaking tour in the UK, Mayweather told the paying crowd that he believes that Canelo (53-1-2, 36 KOs) has been studying the old tapes of his fights to pick up his moves.
Mayweather notes that Canelo is making big noise lately with his victories over former IBF/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennadiy ‘GGG’ Golovkin and former WBO light heavyweight belt holder Sergey ‘Krusher’ Kovalev.
Mayweather giving Saunders a chance against Canelo
“Anything can happen in the sport of boxing, but he must know that in my fight against Canelo, just because I used certain angles, as I said before, I can tell he’s been watching my tapes and I can tell Canelo has been studying my moves,” said Mayweather when asked if ‘Saunders has a chance against Canelo?’
Alvarez fought in a similar way as Mayweather in his first fight against Golovkin in 2017 in backing against the ropes and looking to throw single counter shots back. However, it didn’t work that well for Canelo, as he appeared to lose the fight.
The judges scored the Canelo vs. Golovkin 1 fight a 12 round draw, but it’s widely believed that GGG won that match by 4 rounds. If Canelo did choose to copy Mayweather, it was a failure on his part. He was too defensive and never got off the ropes to go on the offensive.
In the rematch with Golovkin in 2018, Canelo fought more aggressively and fought with his old style. Hence there was nothing Mayweather-esque about Canelo’s fighting style. Canelo probably realizes that he can’t win using the Mayweather style of fighting because it’s too defensive, and he gets outworked when he fights in that style.
Now that the 5’8″ Canelo is at 168, he’s too short to fight like Mayweather in that division. If Canelo hangs back and looks to counter, he’ll get picked apart by the long jabs from his taller opponents. For that reason, Canelo can’t afford to use the Mayweather approach to fighting otherwise he’ll lose or be involved in controversial decisions.
We’ve already seen Canelo dodge losses in fights where the judges seemed to give him the benefit of the doubt against Golovkin [x 2], Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout.
Mayweather doesn’t want Saunders to “OVERLOOK” Canelo
“Canelo fought GGG and he beat Kovalev. So Canelo is making a lot of noise in the sport of boxing. I don’t want Billy Joe Saunders to overlook Canelo, and I think it’s going to be a hell of a fight,” said Mayweather.
It’s Canelo who shouldn’t overlook Saunders, not the other way around. Mayweather might be confused a little on who the more talented fighter is in the Canelo vs. Saunders fight.
Some of the comments Mayweather made about not wanting Saunders to “overlook” Canelo suggests that he’s not following the sport closely enough to understand who the favorite is in that fight. Saunders is a flawed fighter at 168, and he’s expected to be a BIG underdog against Canelo.
Mayweather also brought up former IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook, and he was highly complimentary of him. Brook is seen as a fighter on the downside of his career, so it was odd for Mayweather to be speaking about him. Is Mayweather following boxing?
The British fighter Saunders looked subpar in his last two fights at super middleweight against Marcelo Esteban Coceres and Shefat Isufi. Those performances by Saunder showed that he’s the weakest of the champions at 168, and not anywhere near as talented as Caleb Plant and David Benavidez, two of the other champions in the division.
Saunders has a shot at beating Canelo, as long as he doesn’t go directly at him or stand stationary as we saw in his last 2 fights at 168. When Saunders is mobile, he’s hard to beat, and Canelo will struggle with that style. The only thing is whether Saunders has the engine to move for three minutes of every round before tiring.
