Floyd Mayweather: When Canelo fought me, he was in his prime, I was an old man. I wasn't in my prime

Floyd is absolutely right.

Canelo was 23 (same age as Hearns vs Leonard FFS!) in his 8th defense of the 154lb title.

If he wasn't ready he'd never be. Honestly I think Floyd beats Canelo today...he owns the man.

 

Pretty nice of Floyd to finally admit he fought old men like Oscar and Shane.

 

Floyd owns you Canelo. You can buy all the judges in the world, inject yourself with as much Clenbutrol in the world, eat as much tainted meat in the world, Floyd will still beat that Ass. And Floyd will still out earn you in this sport. Floyd will never be told to GTFOH by a Television network when asking to be paid $280 million. Accept Floyd is your daddy

 

Oh bull****, Floyd. You completely schooled him. Now almost a decade later you wanna' spike the football? Money does not convey class, apparently.

 

Lmao at fanboys thinking Floyd would beat canelo today. Any Floyd, lol.

 

Given the large age gap, it was realistically the only time they could fight, before Canelo moved up to Middleweight / SMW, before Floyd really started noticeably slipping, that's true. But looking back on it, the version of Canelo that Floyd beat, we can see now that was a much lesser version of Canelo compared to the fighter he is today. So Canelo nowadays at SMW vs any version of Mayweather is a completely different story. Canelo is now two weight classes above the highest weight Floyd ever fought in, so based on that alone, we know that any version of Mayweather would never move up that high in weight to fight Canelo as he is currently, because if he did, he knows he would be in big trouble. That's what Canelo said that produced this response from Mayweather. This is no disrespect to Floyd, this is just knowing what Canelo is now compared to what he was then, both in terms of weight class and improving leaps and bounds as a fighter.

Given the improved skill of Canelo now vs 8 years ago plus the moving up in weight, the idea that Mayweather would always beat any version of Canelo is a pipe dream. It's funny though seeing Mayweather and his fans living vicariously through Canelo these days now that Floyd's too old to fight, and seeing them ride his win over Canelo to the moon and act like it trumps anything Canelo does. This is insecurity and Mayweather idol worship. Casuals say stuff like that becuase they think pumping up Mayweather gives them credibility. We've seen similar arguments made from Mayweather in regards to Pacquiao, that any version of Mayweather beats Pacquiao. We all know how good Pacquiao was between 2008-2012, so lets not get crazy here.

If you read through this topic, there's a good amount of posters on each side of the argument of who was closer to their prime. Both sides seem unwilling to budge. But what is driving those who are on each side of this argument? Mayweather fans are saying he was old when he fought Canelo and still beat him easily. This would be ignoring Mayweather's condition that night and would be ignoring the judges scores. This is the land of make believe to claim he was old and had an easy time with even a lesser version of Canelo. If that's the case, then what does that say about other fighters in that timeframe that Canelo beat like Trout or Lara? Mayweather fans want to have their cake and eat it to. They want to act like Mayweather dominated Canelo, that it wasn't even remotely close, they want talk about how great of a performance it was from Mayweather, at the same time they want to claim that Mayweather was old and claim that Canelo was in is prime when we know full well he's in his prime now 8 years later. All these things can't exist at the same time.

Some fighters peak in their early 20s, and drop out of their prime while they are still in their 20s, other fighters don't peak until their early 30s, and some fighters stretch their prime into their mid to late 30s, it really depends on the fighter. There's not a specific Prime age or range that applies to every fighter. This concept seems to be lost on some fans. Mayweather stretched his prime out into his mid-30s due to his work ethic in the gym and not taking much punishment in the ring. This is not hard to understand, and anyone without an agenda should have an easy time coming to this conclusion.

 

Canelo and Pac are Floyd's best scalps.

Canelo was a few fights and a few years away from becoming his best, but still a great win for Money.

Pac was several years and a good few fights past his best in 2015, but again, a great win.

Floyd ranks well ahead of Canelo in terms of greatness, but Canelo is not finished yet.
He ranks a whisker ahead of Pac, who is also still campaigning.

Not a chance.

At this point, Pac probably beats Floyd.

And Canelo would be charged with murder.

 

Even though he lost the first one to Morales, he was in the beginning of his prime. He definitely wasn't green for sure!

 

The difference was, while the # of fights were the same, Pacquiao was 26 years old at that point when he fought Morales the first time while Canelo was only 23 when he fought Mayweather. So Canelo was much younger for his 44th bout than Pacquiao was. When Pacquiao was 23, that would have been over 2 years before he fought Marquez the first time and about a year and a half before he fought Barrera.

If the beginning of Pacquiao's prime started in his mid to late 20s, if his absolute peak was around age 30, no one would say he was prime at age 23. But that's what they're are saying about Canelo that he was prime at age 23. All because Mayweather wants to say he beat a Prime Canelo when he was an old man lol.

 

You're closer to your prime at 23 than 36 those are facts. No one here has refuted my point about a 23 year old Usain bolt beating a 36 year old Usain bolt. The 23 year old Jordan beats the 36 year old Jordan. The 23 year old Michael Phelps beats the 36 year old Phelps. The same can be said about pbf at 23 and at 36 and the 23 year old canelo would beat the 36 year old version of himself.

 

Clenelo could very well kill Floyd in the ring. I'm talking 168 Clenelo vs. any version of Floyd.

 

He looks like Brutus with all that Hair and Beard implant

 

Apples to oranges. You're talking about track and swimming. Track and swimming are linear, getting from point A to point B as fast as possible sports. Boxing is a thinking man's sport, which involves hand eye coordination, maneuverability, reacting to opponents, the mental element, experience.

Every boxer's prime is different. There are fighters who you can say their prime was as early as age 23. An example would be Fernando Vargas or even James Toney. These are guys who peaked early in their careers. Toney started ballooning up in weight by his mid to late 20s so you can't say he was prime anymore by then.

Mayweather's absolute peak was probably when he fought Hatton. He was 30 years old. Then he took 2 years off, when he came back in 2009 he was older. He didn't look peak anymore like he was in 2007, but still looked in his prime. For me that prime lasted for 4 more years, until he fought Maidana where you could see him starting to slow down. You can disagree all you want, but this isn't a knock on Mayweather, really it's a credit to Mayweather that he was able to stretch out his prime into his mid-30s. I didn't see Mayweather slowing down against Canelo. The hand speed and reaction time was still there. Frankly I thought he looked better vs Canelo than he did a year earlier vs Cotto. My guess is that's because he trained harder for Canelo. Sometimes you can look better even when you're older if you put in the work in the gym. Many have said the Canelo fight was Mayweather's last great performance. And I would agree with that, and what this says is that he was still close to his prime. Mayweather did not look like an old man when he fought Canelo. He was in great condition, he still had the speed and the ability to deal with Canelo.

It doesn't make sense that an old lackluster Mayweather was able to beat Canelo with ease, even a lesser version of Canelo. That just doesn't add up. Prime Trout or Prime Lara couldn't beat Canelo, so how could a lackluster old man Mayweather beat him and do it easily as you say? Or was it the catchweight that made the version of Canelo who fought Mayweather more vulnerable than the version who fought Trout or Lara. And if it wasn't that, then what was it? If Mayweather fought Lara or Trout at 154 back then, would you expect him to school them? I wouldn't, I'd favor Mayweather, but only slightly, I'd expect those to be close fights. And I doubt Mayweather would knock down Trout like Canelo did or make Lara run as much as he did vs Canelo. Mayweather was able to deal with Canelo at 36 because he was still in tremendous shape for a man his age, he still had the hand speed and reaction time and had tons of experience, he was able to make adjustments mid-way through that match leading to that big 7th round after being in a chess match early on.

 

Wasn't green, but he was still a largely one-handed, undeveloped fighter.