Following yesterday’s final press conference for this weekend’s Showtime PPV main event between Gervonta Davis and Isaac Cruz, Floyd Mayweather made his promoter’s appearance and sat down with the media to discuss a number of topics including the news of Canelo Alvarez’s planned move to cruiserweight to fake Ilunga Makabu. Needless to say, Floyd isn’t a big fan of the fight.
Floyd on Canelo’s impending move to cruiserweight to face Makabu
“(Canelo’s) going up to cruiserweight, he’s fighting a guy that’s really not — ehhh — the guy’s a little up and down, but it is what it is. I mean, if it was up to me, we want to see Benavidez. Canelo a helluva fighter but my personal opinion, he’s ducking Benavidez. That’s just my personal opinion and I’m allowed to speak my mind, that’s what it is. He’s going up to cruiserweight — and I’m not knocking him — and that same guy at cruiserweight used to be at the Mayweather Boxing Gym. The guys really getting the best of him in the Mayweather Boxing Gym so if he’s going up to ‘cruiserweight’, Benavidez can go up and beat that same guy.
“But when you are put in a certain position he, like me, when I was in the position I can pick and choose who I want to because I earned that right. But do I like this fight (Canelo-Makabu), absolutely not. We want to see Benavidez. Let’s make it happen.”
On what similarities he sees in Canelo to himself since he beat him
“Same fighter. It’s crazy that they’re like ‘Canelo in his prime, he’d have been a different fighter.’ When I fought him he was in his prime. Go back and look at me, I was the best when I was in my 20s. When I fought Canelo I was almost 40 years old. A lot of times they’re gonna keep asking me about the Canelo fight, and when they write about it in the headline they’re going to make it seem extremely bad, seem like it’s a beef — it’s not a beef.”
On how he views the current pound-for-pound rankings in boxing
“I’ll come on record and say that kid Ennis, ‘Boots’, don’t sleep on him. Don’t sleep on him, I tell these fighters don’t. Helluva fighter. And even Benavidez, should be ranked in the top pound-for-pound. But what we don’t talk about is ‘Canelo, Canelo, Canelo! Steriods, steriods, steriods!’ Ya’ll don’t talk about that. So we really don’t know all the fighters he beat and he could’ve not been clean in a lot of fights.”