Mayweather can affirm legendary status in toughest fight of career

If there are any doubts that Floyd Mayweather Jr is the greatest boxer to grace the modern era, they would be expelled with a victory over fearsome Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, an outcome priced at 1/3.

The fight is easily Mayweather’s most difficult since facing Canelo’s compatriot Oscar Dela Hoya in 2007 and with the fighters aged at 36 and 23 respectively, many are billing this fight as boxing’s present versus its potential future.

Mayweather took his record to 44-0 against Robert Guerrero in a typically Money performance with the elusive American dominant from pretty much start to finish. Mayweather landed 60 per cent of all his power shots in yet another masterful display of defence and counter punching. All three judges scored the bout 117-111.

But if there is a man in boxing who possesses the key to unlock the Mayweather enigma right now, it is Saul Alvarez, who is priced at 5/2 to become the first man to defeat Floyd.

Despite being just 23, the undefeated Mexican has had 43 fights himself after turning pro at just 15. British fans may remember him as the man who beat up Matthew Hatton for 12 rounds and stopped Ryan Rhodes in 2011 but since then Canelo has gone on to defend his WBC Light Middleweight crown another five times. In his last fight he inflicted the first loss of WBA Champion Austin Trout’s career as Trout tasted the canvas for the first time.

Against Mayweather, Canelo will look to surpass the performances of those boxers who’ve fared admirably yet still been vanquished by the champ in modern times.

Ricky Hatton applied early pressure and did well in the early rounds of his loss, while the sheer speed shown by Dela Hoya in his defeat also had Mayweather briefly troubled.

Canelo certainly possesses the speed and the power to cause problems and has a natural size advantage in this catchweight bout. If he is able to land, he is more than capable of a knockout. But that is easier said than done against the genius that is Floyd Mayweather Jr.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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