Floyd Mayweather Jr and Saul ‘Canelo’ Álvarez will go down in sporting history as two of the greatest to ever lace up. One former opponent of both has made a comparison that not many others can.
‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley won the lightweight world title in 1997 and would go on to make eight successful stoppage defences in the years following. He would go onto win honours in two more divisions.
He fought Mayweather at the welterweight limit of 147lbs, losing via unanimous decision in a non-title bout. Two years later he would challenge Canelo for the WBC super-welterweight belt – also a points loss.
In 2013, Canelo lost a majority decision to Mayweather in a fight that could have been a passing of the torch had the American not decided to hang onto it so tightly.
Speaking to FightHype, Mosley said there wasn’t a power difference between the two elite fighters.
“When I fought Floyd, his power was really good. His power was actually the same speed and power as Canelo when I fought Canelo at 154.”
On paper, Canelo is the power-puncher of the two. He has 39 knockouts from 59 wins, and is currently undisputed in the super-middleweight ranks – three divisions higher than ‘Money’ Mayweather ever fought.
Although Mayweather is known for being one of the most impressive defensive boxers the sport has seen and retired with a stoppage ratio just a touch over 50%, Mosley says the power was there to punish people who had the wrong game-plan.
“His power is really more generated when the guys are coming to him. He likes to do the shoulder roll and counterpunch hoping that you run into the shot … Floyd’s strong, he has good power, speed, it’s deceptive.
That’s why people are not just running in and trying to do it. They can’t just run in, because if they do something happen kind of like what happened with Ricky Hatton.”
Whilst Canelo still competes at the highest level, Mayweather hung up the gloves at 50-0 and is currently enjoying the spoils of the exhibition circuit.