Former world champion Andre Ward has claimed that Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez has no right to call himself the best fighter in the world.
For many, the multi-weight world champion deserves to be discussed in the pound-for-pound rankings. He is currently the undisputed super middleweight champion and has also held bets at middleweight, and light heavyweight, amongst others.
The Mexican has rarely shied away from anyone over the course of more than 50 fights since he turned pro aged just 15. He is next out against young Mexican challenger Jamie Munguia on Cinco De Mayo and has only lost twice in his career.
Once was to Floyd Mayweather back in 2013, while the other came more recently to the fantastic southpaw technician Dimitri Bivol.
Ward was recently speaking to Breakfast Power Club and was asked if Canelo doesn’t fight David Benavidez if that is a strike against his name.
“Absolutely. Canelo fans call me a hater cause I tell them the truth. Me and Canelo we never were in the same weight class. Only reason we get brought up in the same category is we have a common opponent. Sergey Kovalev.
“When he beat him they say right fight Dre now, call Dre up. I never say Canelo ducked me ’cause he didn’t. I was never on his radar and he was never on my radar.”
He then laid into Canelo’s resume.
“But in terms of resume, there’s a little website called Box Rec. You can look at the opponents he fought but when did he fight that name? he 32. He coming off two losses. He 35. Kovalev when he fought Kovalev he was cooked.
“He was undefeated he has lost that. So he lose me when he starts saying he the best in the world. Canelo is a really good fighter but you don’t know how good you are until you fight the best.”
Should Canelo come through Munguia, he may well look to make the fight with Benavidez later in the year and fire back at his critics.