By Edward Chaykovsky
Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26KOs) is not impressed with the undefeated record of his next opponents, WBC/WBA 154-pound champion Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (42-0-1, 30KOs). The fight takes place on September 14th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Mayweather brushed off Oscar De La Hoya's prediction of Canelo scoring a knockout in eight rounds. He says Canelo failed to score knockouts against numerous fighters, including Austin Trout and Matthew Hatton.
"All you have to do is look at the opponents that he's faced in the past. I don't really know too many of the opponents that he's faced in the past, but a lot of these guys went the distance with him and we're not talking about A and B [class] fighters, we're talking about C and D fighters. Then they would go into the eight round or ninth round and he would get hit with numerous shots," Mayweather said.
"He didn't knock Austin Trout out. Then you have to look at the fighters he faced before that. There were some fighters he went the distance with and some fighters that he should have knocked out. He went the distance with Ricky Hatton's brother and Ricky Hatton's brother is not on the same level as a Floyd Mayweather."
Mayweather later stated that Juan Manuel Marquez, not Canelo, has the biggest following among the Latin and Hispanic boxing fans.
"I don't really know who out of the Latin and Hispanic fighters has the biggest following. If I had to say so, I would say Marquez because he has accomplished more and he has done a lot for the sport of boxing. I don't want to say that Canelo has the biggest following, I would say Marquez," Mayweather said.
