The only red spot in Canelo Alvarez‘s brilliant career was on September 13, 2013. On that night, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, he was schooled by legendary Floyd Mayweather Jr. and lost his undefeated. The bitter moment wastheinflection point in which Alvarez mastered not only new boxingskills, but, according to former World Champion Keith Thurman, also a specific one outside of the ring that has boosted his career.
When he faced Mayweather Jr., the Mexican fighter was only 23 years old, however, he had already conquered the WBC and WBA World Super middleweight titles, and was 42-0-1. Even though he was very young, he was not a rookie fighter at all. On his behalf, Floyd was 36 and already a 5 division World Champion entering the last part of his career.
Since then, Canelo has risen so high that he is the current Pound for Pound King, first Unified World Super middleweight Champion, and a 4 division titleholder. For sure, there were valuable lessons he learned after being defeated by Mayweather Jr, after all, thePretty Boyis considered one of the best boxers ever.
The skill Keith Thurman says Canelo learned from Mayweather
In an interview with Youtube Channel Fight Hub TV, the former World Welterweight Champion Keith Thurman shared his opinion about the way Canelo Alvarez selects his opponents, motivated by the possible clash the Mexican boxer could have against Ilunga Makabu for the WBC World Cruiserweight title and not with other fighters on his same weight class like David Benavidez.
“Canelo is Canelo. The people love him. He has a huge following. He has brought tons of excitement. You can say he has cherry-picked a little bit, but he has kind of learned from the best. He was beaten by Floyd and now he is starting to make money like Floyd. Are there greater challenges out there for Canelo Alvarez? Most definitely. Are there fights I would truly love to see? Most definitely. Are there super talented individuals that might be able to give him problems? Definitely“, stated Thurman.
Keith Thurman’s only defeat was against Pacquiao in 2019. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Nevertheless,One Timehas also stated that Canelo deserves the opportunity to carefully select his rivals thanks to what he has achieved in the ring so far: “Does Canelo has to pick any of the toughest fighters? No, absolutely not. Whatever he wants to do, what he likes to do, what makes he want to get out of bed, and excites him, and elevates himself and his career that is what he is going to do“.
