Floyd Mayweather officially retired in 2017 after a crossover fight with Conor McGregor.
During his era as ‘Money’ Mayweather, he fought a young upstart in Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, whom he beat by majority decision.
Fast forward 12 years from that loss, and Canelo now sits as the undisputed super middleweight king, ready to face four-division great Terence Crawford.
The comparisons between Floyd and ‘Bud’ have been made by the Mexican himself, claiming that a win here is better than a victory over the undefeated legend, even if Crawford is jumping up two weight classes.
‘They always say that’ – Jeff Mayweather blasts Floyd Mayweather/Terence Crawford comparisons by Canelo
But the uncle of the 50-0 fighter, Jeff Mayweather, has brushed aside any comparisons to his famous nephew.
In a recent interview on his channel, the long-time trainer explained why he feels the 35-year-old has made this claim.
“(Crawford better than Floyd) Maybe he is, the one thing is this, they will always say that somebody that already beat you is better than the person you are fighting… He wants to make himself look like he did something great.
“I think that in order to make himself look like he beat somebody better than Floyd.”
His criticisms didn’t stop there as he took apart the suggestion that the now four-weight world champion faced a prime Floyd.
“What was Canelo 20 something? He had more fights than Floyd, and he lost? To a man who was 30-something years old.
“How are you at the top of your career, you ain’t in your prime at 36. That’s not your prime, your prime is in your 20s.”
At the time, the 23-year-old was 43 fights into his professional career and coming off a three-fight win streak, which included ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley.
Canelo Alvarez ranks former rival Floyd Mayweather a 10/10
While he may have made some comparisons between the Omaha fighter and the boxer once known as ‘Pretty Boy’, the admiration for his rival cannot be understated.
In a recent interview with Ring Magazine, he ranked each of his toughest opponents and when it came to Floyd, it was a perfect score.
Canelo said: “10/10. You know, I don’t need to explain it.”
He also ranked Dmitry Bivol and Gennady Golovkin, who never suffered a knockdown in his career, in the same bracket, labelling the latter a ‘complete fighter’.
The Guadalajara native will have to muster up a performance from his prime years, similar to the ‘GGG’ rematch win, to add to his Hall of Fame career, or face an unexpected upset from a boxer looking to end his career with the biggest notch available.