A former unified super-middleweight champion has backed himself to defeat Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez in a fantasy showdown.
Canelo has proven himself to be one of the best fighters on the planet on multiple occasions throughout the course of his decorated professional career, which began when he was just a 15-year-old back in 2005.
The 35-year-old from Guadalajara has won world titles across four weight classes along the way and currently reigns as the undisputed super-middleweight champion. He is set to make the first defence of his crown against fellow pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford in Las Vegas on September 13.
Although Canelo has emerged as one of, if not the greatest super-middleweight of his generation, a retired hall-of-fame great and former unified champion at 168lbs believes he would have been too much for the Mexican icon.
Speaking to First Round TV, Welsh boxing legend Joe Calzaghe was asked to reveal how he would have approached a clash with Canelo,
“Yeah well Canelo, I’d just be me you know … I think my style would be all wrong for him, fast hands, southpaw, unpredictable combination puncher, too much for him.
“I think if you look at the way [Dmitry] Bivol beat him, Bivol is a really top fighter but he doesn’t have the same work rate. He has a good in and out movement, fast, in and out combinations variation, uppercut, body shots.”
Calzaghe is widely considered to be one of, if not the greatest British fighter of all time. Throughout the course of his exceptional professional career, ‘The Pride Of Wales’ became the unified WBC, WBA and WBO super-middleweight champion and remains the longest reigning super-middleweight champion of all time, successfully defending his WBO crown twenty times over the course of ten years.
He announced his retirement from boxing back in February of 2009 with an unbeaten record of 46-0 to his name, but that hasn’t stopped fellow former world champion Carl Froch from having plenty to say about his long-term rival.