Mayweather Explains What Sets Him Apart From Canelo

By Rick Reeno

WBC welterweight champion Floyd Mayweather Jr. (44-0, 26KOs) believes there are very few fighters left who are willing to face any opponent out there. This coming Saturday night, Mayweather will challenge Saul "Canelo" Alvarez for the WBC/WBA junior middleweight titles at a catch-weight of 152-pounds.

Mayweather feels he came up the hard way, by winning his first world title from a Hall-of-Fame boxer like Genaro Hernandez, and then fought the best fighters in multiple divisions for several years. On the other hand, he points out that Canelo - at 23-years-old, earned a world title, and the big paychecks, without putting in the same amount of work.

"I feel like I'm the last of my breed. I earned it the hard way. I didn't come into this sport for three or four years and earn a chance to fight [for a world title]. When I was fighting, the best fighters at the weight class I was fighting at, at 130 way back when, were Genaro Hernandez and Angel Mandfredy. And then after those was Diego Corrales. I feel like I've been faced, I've been tested, I've faced guys who punch hard," Mayweather said.

"Every time I go in there they say 'it's going to be this guy [to beat Mayweather], it's going to be that guy. We just have to see. To me they are all just the same, just an opponent right in front of me. All of these guys right now are fighting opponents who are handpicked. In my era, in the era I was fighting at, and I'm stilling fighting - I was fighting whoever. And I wasn't getting what Canelo was getting so quick and so fast."