Saul Canelo Alvarez (Photo : Getty Images)
Manny Pacquiao training in LA (Photo : Jhay Oh Otamias)
After the impressive knockout that Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez dealt Amir Khan, there was only one fight that needed to be made.
However, the road to boxing's most anticipated match-up between Canelo and Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin is far from seamless. Alvarez continues to demand the fight be made at a catch weight of 155 lbs, and GGG's camp is still against it.
There is the possibility of another big fight for Canelo and that might be the recently retired Manny Pacquiao. Despite Pacman's announcement that he has hung up his gloves, his trainer Freddie Roach is not done speculating as he told Boxing Scene that his prized ward could have given a better fight than Amir Khan did.
"If someone can go out there and outbox him and stay disciplined, they would be okay. I was offered the (Alvarez) fight from Bob Arum, for Manny Pacquiao, and I didn't say no - because the thing about Pacquiao fighting him (Canelo), and maybe not being strong enough, is being smart enough to fight him for twelve rounds," Roach declared.
He concluded: "And I think Pacquiao can pull that off."
Should Canelo hold off the fight against GGG in favor of giving Manny a shot out of retirement? Mayweather thinks so, as he told Fighthype (h/t Boxing News 24).
"If I was Canelo's promoter, I wouldn't even fight Triple G," said Mayweather. "Canelo don't need Triple G. Triple G needs Canelo. Triple G, he hasn't shown me any heart yet. He just wants to stay at 160. No, that's not what we're going to do."
At this point, Mayweather reveals why he did not fight Pacquiao when it was first clamored for sometime between 2008-2009.
"At one particular time people were saying Floyd Mayweather is a coward, he was scared to fight Pacquiao. Once again, I told you I'm not just a fighter, I'm a businessman. At one particular time I was going to make upwards up to a guaranteed $60 or $70 million, probably $60 million [to fight Pacquiao], but then I could have made $100 million total. I didn't rush. I took my time. It's about having patience. I took my time. I had patience and I made $300 million. I can't say what he made. It was real low, but if Pacquiao was my fighter, he would have made a lot more. Canelo is a hell of a champion. He's a good champion. He goes out there and does what he has to do. But Canelo is making a lot of noise in the sport of boxing," said Mayweather.
True to his moniker, for Mayweather it's all about money. However, there are different theories on his real motive in the context of his unsolicited advice to Canelo. Mayweather, like most boxing pundits, was gauging how Pacquiao fared against their mutual opponents.
The catalyst would be the Ricky Hatton fight. Mayweather struggled against Hatton while Pacquiao demolished the Briton in one of the most impressive knockouts of his career. He rampaged through different divisions fighting bigger opponents like Miguel Cotto and Antonio Margarito.
In a similar way, GGG is rampaging through meager opponents but is slowly getting meetings with big names. Canelo is probably playing the waiting game that Floyd did, not for money but possibly for survival.
Still, Canelo showed that he has the power to match GGG in his Khan fight. The hope is that the wait for GGG vs Canelo would not be as long as Mayweather vs Pacquiao.
