Canelo Alvarez is cognizant that his first career loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 wasn’t so bad after all.
The undisputed super middleweight champion tasted defeat for the second time in his career most recently in May when he stepped up to light heavyweight to challenge Dmitry Bivol, and ahead of his trilogy against Gennadiy Golovkin on Sept. 17, Alvarez reflected on his first blemish as a professional, and how it has shaped his perception on his life and career ever since.
“Simply, it was down to experience. If I compare that Canelo with Canelo today, they are completely different. It’d be a completely different fight now [against Mayweather],” Alvarez said on the DAZN Originals series “The Making Of”.
“I’ve always said that perhaps if I’d won that night, everything would have come my way. Fame, money, and perhaps it wouldn’t have worked out well then. I could’ve perhaps gone crazy. It wasn’t my moment. That’s how I take it, it wasn’t my moment. It took me a few days for me to accept it.”
Alvarez (57-2-2, 39 KOs) was just a green 23-year-old when he faced off against the all-time great Mayweather.
The fight was officially ruled a majority decision win for Mayweather, but the matchup was not as close as the scorecards made it seem, as Mayweather outclassed Alvarez for most of the 12 rounds and outlanded him 232 to 117.
Alvarez grew his star in defeat, however, and hasn’t looked back ever since, becoming a four-division champion and one of the faces of the sport.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, via email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com or on www.ManoukAkopyan.com.