By Dan Ambrose: Floyd Mayweather Jr ripped into Canelo Alvarez today over his ducking of David Benavidez, his WBC 168-lb mandatory challenger.
Mayweather doesn’t like Canelo’s weak excuse for not fighting the unbeaten Benavidez (26-0, 23 KOs), saying he doesn’t want to fight any Mexican fighters.
Mayweather isn’t buying that excuse, as he points out that Canelo has made a career out of beating Mexican fighters.
So why all of a sudden, when faced with a dangerous fight against the ‘Mexican Monster’ Benavidez, Canelo says he doesn’t want to fight Mexican fighters?
Mayweather says if black fighters adopted the same policy, then boxing fans wouldn’t see the best fighting the best because, in Floyd’s opinion, “the greatest fighters are black.”
It’s pretty clear in the eyes of fans that Canelo is avoiding Benavidez like the plague because he doesn’t want to get humiliated by him in suffering a knockout loss.
It’s one thing for Canelo to lose a decision to Dmitry Bivol and Mayweather, but a whole different matter to get knocked out by Benavidez.
“Just as a promoter, I’m far from racist. I don’t have a racist bone in my body,” said Floyd Mayweather Jr to Fighthype. “When I go out and stand behind a lot of young fighters that come from a struggle.
“It doesn’t matter where they’re from. They can be from Mexico or anywhere. I just want to help fighters accomplish what they want to accomplish in the sport of boxing.
“You have to realize that Crawford, as well as Spence, are two hell of a fighters. It would be wrong if they pulled a Canelo. He said, ‘I don’t want to fight no Mexican fighters.’
“Canelo made his career off beating Mexican fighters, but now he says he doesn’t want to take the Benavidez fight. He’s talking about not wanting to fight Mexican fighters. That’s a way to back out the block.
“If that’s the case and Canelo is saying that and everybody is standing behind Canelo, then all the black fighters out there can say, ‘You know what? We’re not going to fight each other.’
“You know why the black fighters can’t say that? Because they say, ‘The best has got to fight the best. The great ones have got to fight the great ones,’ right? All the best and the greatest fighters are black,” said Mayweather.
