Floyd Mayweather: “I fought prime Canelo” in 2013

By Boxing News - 04/20/2023 - Comments

By Allan Fox: Floyd Mayweather Jr claims that he fought Canelo Alvarez when the Mexican fighter was in his prime ten years ago, in 2013, when he was a 22-year-old fighter.

Mayweather was 36 when he fought Canelo at a 152-lb catchweight, and he says if he had fought him when he was at his best in his prime, he would have stopped him.

It’s fair to say that Floyd is disingenuous by saying that Canelo was in his prime at 22 years old because he was nowhere near the fighter that fought Gennadiy Golovkin in his first two fights or in 2021 when he captured the undisputed super middleweight championship by beating Caleb Plant.

That version of Canelo will likely have battered the light-hitting Mayweather, forcing him to run for twelve rounds. If Canelo had been in his prime, he’d either have knocked out  Mayweather or embarrassed him in a one-sided decision.

“Canelo Alvarez is a helluva fighter. [People talk about] a prime Mayweather vs. a prime Canelo. I fought a prime Canelo. I was the older Mayweather fighting prime Canelo. The fight wouldn’t have gone the distance if it were a prime Mayweather,” said Floyd Mayweather Jr to @BetOnline_ag.

“Fighters are so worried about losing. I’m here to let everybody know that, as an amateur, I lost fights,” said Mayweather. “You live, and you learn. Winning and losing are part of competing vs. the best. The best should fight each other, no different from what I did.”

The arguments fans have about Mayweather was that he was bad for boxing because he focused on preserving his unbeaten record by carefully picking his opposition and fighting top guys when they weren’t in their prime.

Mayweather didn’t fight Oscar De La Hoya, Shane Mosley, Zab Judah, and Manny Pacquiao until they were well out of their prime, and the fights were boring to watch.

Some fans feel that Mayweather was little more than a potshot fighter with an amateur, point-scoring style. Also, he didn’t fight the best. Hence, we never saw Mayweather fight any of these fighters:

Tim Bradley
Jermell Charlo
Erislandy Lara
Kostya Tszyu
Antonio Margarito
Errol Spence Jr
Terence Crawford
Keith Thurman

Mayweather’s wins over Jose Luis Castillo and Marcos Maidana were questionable in his first fights with both. A massive amount of fans felt Mayweather was gifted a decision over Castillo in their first fight in 2002.

YouTube video