Photo Courtesy of Golden Boy Promotions Twitter Account
Floyd Mayweather and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez have not lost as professionals in their respective professional careers to date. This, along with other plot lines, make their megafight on Saturday night in Las Vegas one of the many reasons that hardcore and casual boxing fans, and interested non-fans, will be tuning in to watch the fight billed as ‘The One’.
Both Floyd Mayweather and Canelo Alvarez have strong arguments as to why they will be the fighter who at the end of the night will have his arm lifted in the air and thus handing the other their first loss as a professional boxer.
Floyd Mayweather’s biggest strengths as a boxer are that he is an incredible defensive boxer, one of the best if not the best all-time in that department, and his hand speed. On the other hand, Canelo Alvarez’ biggest strengths are his power, especially his left hook to the body being his most devastating punch, and his ability to know when to turn it up and finish off an opponent.
Rounds 1-3
While Canelo Alvarez might not win the fight in the opening three rounds, he can certainly lose the fight if he does not do enough in the opening three rounds of if he does not do enough to make Floyd think that he can be hurt if he were to stick with his gameplan for the fight. Floyd on the other hand, will use the early rounds to time the speed of Canelo’s punches and figure out how to go about best fighting Canelo for the remainder of the fight.
I expect to see in these first three rounds a fight where Canelo comes out fast and ramped up given the atmosphere of being a big fight where he tries to hurt Floyd and make Floyd have to change his gameplan. That said, Canelo will as a result more than likely find himself a little sloppy with his technique as a result and towards the end of the third round, Floyd Mayweather will have timed Canelo and start to begin to attack him as he normally would. I see Floyd winning two of the first three rounds.
Rounds 4-6
These are the rounds where Floyd Mayweather begins to suck the life out of a fight as in the fourth round he will begin to tag Canelo with two punch combinations and then retreat into a strong and offensive defensive stance which will allow him to continue to frustrate and measure Canelo. It will be important for Canelo not fall into a trap of desperation as a result of a potential inability to hurt Floyd Mayweather and or be able to land clean punches against the best defensive boxer in the sport at this moment. I see Floyd winning all three of these rounds.
Rounds 6-12
From the middle of the fight on, I expect to see Floyd in full control of the fight, showing off why he is one of if not the best boxer right now pound for pound as he will be controlling the fight employing his gameplan. Canelo will in all likely try to look for the knockout beginning from round eight onwards with the knowledge and suspicion that he will be significantly behind in the scorecards and therefore his only recourse will be to try and knockout Floyd Mayweather. This will prove very difficult given that Floyd does not put himself in such risk to allow a surprise knockout happen.
In the end, this is a fight where despite Alvarez being the bigger fighter, will be schooled and frustrated by a Mayweather who will show again why he wins such fights and does so convincingly.
My prediction is Floyd Mayweather by Unanimous Decision.
Lucas Carreras is a contributing writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow him on Twitter by following him @maldini3fan and you can add him to your network on Google.
