Canelo Alvarez has eye on Floyd Mayweather rematch: 'Anytime he's ready'

Josh Peter | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption Canelo Alvarez is ready for a rematch with Floyd Mayweather Jr. Canelo Alvarez sat down with USA TODAY Sports to discuss his willingness to once again face off with Floyd Mayweather Jr.

SAN DIEGO – Canelo Alvarez sat on the edge of a boxing ring in a small gym where his posters decorate the walls.

Two months removed from his victory over Gennady Golovkin and less than a month away from his Dec. 15 fight against Rocky Fielding in New York, Alvarez listened as an English-speaking reporter broached a possibility.

“So in 15 minutes, Floyd Mayweather calls. He says, ‘I know you’re busy on the 15th of December, I’ll fight you on the 16th, or whenever you want.’

“What would you say?’’

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Alvarez, the Mexican middleweight star who understands English but prefers to speak Spanish, turned to a translator and they conferred. The translator turned toward the reporter.

“Is that a true statement?’’ he asked.

There was no need for translation after Alvarez was told Mayweather’s offer was hypothetical. He would eagerly welcome a rematch against Mayweather, who in 2013 handed Alvarez (50-1-2) the only defeat of his career.

“Anytime he’s ready, I’m ready,’’ Alvarez, 28, told USA TODAY Sports. “If the day comes that he wants to come out of retirement for it, I’m a different fighter, I’m more mature, I’m a great, A-level fighter now and it would be a great opportunity.

“I’ve always had that little itch for (a rematch) since way back, and now I’m more experienced and more mature. It’s a fight that maybe will happen and will be a great experience."

Mayweather, 41, came out of retirement in 2017 to fight UFC star Conor McGregor. He announced in September he would be fighting Manny Pacquiao in December, but that bout does not appear to be materializing. Nor is there any indication Mayweather (50-0) wants to face Alvarez.



“It was a very boring fight. He didn’t come to fight. He won over experience," Alvarez said of their 2013 bout.

Over the past two years, Alvarez said, his interest in a rematch has increased as he has seen it discussed online and he fielded questions about the possibility. His talk about skills he’d need to defeat Mayweather suggest he’s given the bout thought.

“We have to work hard for that fight,’’ Alvarez said. “We have to work hard very hard for that fight because he’s a fighter that doesn’t throw too much punches.

“Now the fighters, the opponents I’ve been working with, are strong fighters, slow fighters. So to fight a fighter like him and to beat him would be totally different because now we have to get speed into the mix and we’ll do everything that’s possible to do it, to accomplish that goal of winning. And we have to work hard and get a lot of punches in and speed and really more velocity.’’



On Dec. 15, Alvarez will be moving up to 168 pounds from 160 pounds for his fight against Fielding (27-1), a British middleweight. The two will face at Madison Square Garden. Though a fight against Mayweather is a long shot, Alvarez said he would entertain the possibility of a third third fight against Golovkin.

The two fought to a draw in 2017 and Alvarez won the rematch by majority decision Sept. 15 after it was delayed following Alvarez testing positive for a banned substance that he said was the result of eating tainted meat.

“It’s a fight that could happen,’’ Alvarez said. “You know, down the line it could happen. We have a fight on Dec. 15 first, but it’s a fight that could totally happen. If the fans want it, if the people want it and it’s in demand, it totally could happen. But that’s further down the line. We’re focused on this fight now.’’

Though he seemed to dismiss the idea of fighting an MMA star – asserting that a boxer always would dominate in the boxing ring and an MMA fighter always would dominate in the Octagon – he praised the Mayweather-Conor McGregor boxing match that generated more than $300 million.

“It was more of entertainment,’’ Alvarez said. “The fight sold a lot, everybody tuned in, it made a lot of sales, a lot of pay-per-view (buys). It was a spectacular event. …They did their job and made a big, huge money-making event.’’

Moneymaker is now a fitting description for Alvarez. He made about $50 million for his last fight against Golovkin and recently signed a $365 million deal for 11 fights over five years with DAZN, an online streaming service dedicated to sports.

Growing up on a farm in Mexico, Alvarez did not imagine amassing such fortune.

“I never envisioned the magnitude of it,’’ he said of the contract. “It wasn’t in my vision. I knew that it could happen, but I couldn’t even believe it and couldn’t even dream of it. But seeing it and having it now, you see these things and they come to life and you live them.

“You can only see and believe and there’s more to come. There’s a lot more to come.’’