I just wanted to put into perspective what "greatness" truly means. I see a lot of people throwing that word around with regard to Canelo and I thought it only appropriate for us not to forget how great Floyd Mayweather truly was in his masterclass performance against Canelo. Floyd Mayweather is an ATG. Canelo is a great fighter right now. There is a distinction between the two.
The crazy thing is Floyd did it at 36 years and 6 months old. He was way past his prime years and his prime weight category of either 130 or 135. He did not even go into second gear in this fight, he straight up clowned Canelo. Furthermore, what is astonishing is the in-the-ring weights of both fighters. Canelo re-hydrated all the way up to 176 pounds. It was so bad that he stopped doing unofficial pre fight weigh-in's because his re-hydration was such that it made his opponents several weight categories smaller than him. Mayweather most likely never put on a pound after the weight-in.
Yeah Floyd is great, Canelo is too & still got plenty of time to take on a a 23 year old budding star when he is 36-37 & shine the same way.
Prime for prime, Canelo was easily 30 lbs. heavier than Floyd. Floyd was never really a 147 lb. fighter and neither was Canelo.
I agree that he has improved. I will not take that away from him. But I will not say that he was 'green' or other such nonsense when he took on Floyd.
He was not 'green', but he did not have all the experience he has now. I think he is the fighter he is now in many ways because of how easy Floyd made it look. I think at that point he vowed to train harder, be more dedicated to his craft and learn as much from every fight as possible, to never feel that way again. You can see this in effect, and I think you can see elements he has 'absorbed' from Floyd, from Golovkin in his game now.
Anyone that says old floyd was in his prime are dumb. Pretty boy floyd used to brutalize his opponents with combinations. His defense and reflexes was even better back than.
We're seeing the best ever Clenelo 8 years after Floyd. It's not Floyd's fault because they couldn't ever have met in their primes. But it is what it is. Clenelo of 2021 is twice the fighter of Clenelo 2013. Seemingly faster and punching much, much, much harder.
Floyd's performance against Clenelo was maybe the best he's ever looked. And that includes the dismantling of Diego, Gatti, etc..