By Keith Idec
Canelo Alvarez expressed appreciation for Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s stance on Alvarez not needing to move up to 160 pounds to fight Gennady Golovkin.
When Mayweather’s comments were relayed to him early Sunday morning, Alvarez told FightHype.com, “Thank you to him. Thank you so much for his support. All the support, no matter who it comes from, is appreciated.”
Alvarez also said he wasn’t surprised Mayweather came to his defense because he believes they developed a mutual respect from Mayweather’s majority-decision victory over Alvarez (48-1-1, 34 KOs) in September 2013.
“It doesn’t surprise me because he knows that when I was 23 years old, I gave him a fight where he couldn’t do a lot of things he does to everyone else.,” Alvarez said after stopping England’s Liam Smith (23-1-1, 13 KOs) in the ninth round Saturday night at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. ”I think I won his respect. And coming from a fighter like him, who is going to be a legend in this sport, his support is appreciated.”
The retired Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs) told FightHype.com he likes Alvarez’s chances to beat Golovkin (36-0, 33 KOs), yet doesn’t think he should move up to 160 pounds to fight the Kazakh knockout artist.
“Honestly speaking, I really think Canelo can beat him,” Mayweather said. “But I don’t think Canelo should go up and fight Triple-G. Triple-G want every small guy to come up from welterweight, or from 154 to 160. When is Triple-G gonna make the jump and go up?”
Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.
