Robert Garcia rates Canelo Alvarez’s career above Floyd Mayweather’s.
The three-time BWAA Trainer of the Year laid out the case on the True Hustle Podcast, starting with a fight Mayweather never took.
Years ago, when Mayweather was in his prime and at welterweight, I never seen the contract but I was told and I know that the word is that Top Rank offered him eight-million-dollars to fight [Antonio] Margarito and he never wanted to fight Margarito, so he avoided Margarito.
ESPN reported that offer at the time. Garcia does not pretend Canelo is clean of the same charge.
Canelo has that same kind of criticism where people could say that he has picked his opponents a little bit more, you could say that there is some truth there, but I think that he has taken more challenges [than Mayweather].
The weight jumps are the argument.
He has moved up in weights, who the —- goes up to light-heavyweight, you know what I mean? A 5’8″ guy? He is not tall, he is 5’8″ or 5’9″ maybe.
So, I would probably say that, at the end, I think that Canelo [had a more impressive career than Mayweather]. He took those chances, he didn’t have to go to light-heavyweight to fight [Dmitry] Bivol, he didn’t have to do it but he took those chances.
Mayweather retired at 50-0 with titles in five divisions and wins over Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya and Miguel Cotto. He beat Canelo too, by majority decision in 2013.
Canelo moved up to 175lbs to challenge Bivol in 2022 and lost a unanimous decision. He returns on October 31 against Christian Mbilli for the WBC super middleweight title, coming off the longest layoff of his career.
