Sky Sports spoke with the five British fighters who have faced Canelo — Matthew Hatton, Ryan Rhodes, Amir Khan, Liam Smith, and Rocky Fielding — about their experience in the ring with the Mexican superstar, as they’re big on the idea that he might someday come over to the UK to fight.
All of them faced Canelo at different points of his career — Hatton and Rhodes faced a young version, the rest took Alvarez on after he was an established superstar — and their praise for his skills, power, and “eliteness” is pretty unanimous.
As for Khan, he called Canelo a “beast” and said that even if the great Floyd Mayweather broke retirement, he couldn’t beat Canelo anymore:
“Even if Mayweather came back and took a rematch with him, I think he would beat Mayweather. Canelo has matured as a fighter and is a better fighter than when I fought him. He is a great fighter now.
“I am a mobile fighter so it obviously suited me but eventually he found his range and caught me with a good shot. He was working out how to stop me and break me down, and obviously I was beating him on points, but maybe he was just waiting for that one big shot.”
(Note: Alvarez actually led on two cards at the time of the sixth round knockout, but being fair most agreed with Khan that he was, or at least should have been, ahead in the fight.)
The greater point here is really just the thought on how good Canelo has become since fighting Mayweather back in 2013, before you break your legs running to point out that Mayweather is a welterweight who can dabble at 154 for the right matchup, and that Alvarez looks intent on fighting at 168 and probably cannot get under 160 anymore, where Mayweather has no business fighting
