Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez (49-1-1, 34 KOs) was shaking his head after watching last week's antics between five division world champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. and UFC superstar Conor McGregor.
Mayweather and McGregor were engaged in a verbal war for the entire four city press tour, which hit Los Angeles, New York City, Toronto and London.
Mayweather (49-0, 26 KOs), now 40, will return after two years of retirement against McGregor on August 26th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Three weeks later at the same Las Vegas venue, Canelo will challenge IBF, IBO, WBC, WBA middleweight king Gennady Golovkin (37-0, 34 KOs).
Both events will be available on pay-per-view.
Mayweather and McGregor held nothing back, at least verbally, with enough profanity thrown around to last twenty press conferences.
When Canelo and Golovkin went on tour several weeks ago - there was no name-calling, there was no profanity and both boxers showed a high level of mutal respect.
“People can see this is a different type of quality fight,” Canelo told the Los Angeles Times.
“Both fighters [in this contest] are professionals. There’s no reason to badmouth anybody. The world sees the difference between the fighters [in this fight and those in Mayweather-McGregor] — fighters who are there to fight and take the sport seriously, and others who are just putting on an entertainment show. People can see all that, the quality. We’re professional. We respect each other. And that’s what boxing is.”
Canelo's promoter, Oscar De La Hoya of Golden Boy Promotions, completely agrees with his star fighter.
"[The respect between Canelo and Golovkin is] refreshing. This is what boxing, what fighting is all about. You have two guys not screaming at each other and not insulting each other,” De La Hoya said.
“You have this beautiful picture we’re painting, and then on fight night, you know it’s going to be a war. That’s what true boxing is: two guys who are gentlemen, who are going to unleash everything they’ve got. This fight excites me, to know again that boxing is reaching new heights. This is going to solidify that.”