Gomez wants Canelo vs. Mayweather rematch

Boxingnews24.com

By Mike Smith: Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez says he’d like to do a rematch between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Floyd Mayweather Jr. if possible. A rematch between Alvarez and Floyd would bring in tremendous PPV numbers if it happened right now. There’s unfinished business for Canelo, who wasn’t at his best last time he fought Mayweather. Young and weight drained, Canelo did poorly in losing to Mayweather.

The two brought in 2.2 million buys for their fight in 2013. A rematch might bring in double that number if it takes place now. There’s big money for Mayweather if he fights Canelo right now. However, Mayweather would need to give Canelo a better purse split than he gave him in 2013.

Mayweather taking on Canelo at this stage of his career would shock the boxing world, since no one believes that the retired Floyd would want to come back to take on a dangerous fighter like this. It’s been two years since Mayweather last fought a true world class boxer in Andre Berto in 2016. That was a faded Berto and not the prime version.

Canelo (50-1-2, 34 KOs) doesn’t have an opponent for his December 15 fight or his fight for next May. A young 22-year-old Canelo lost to Mayweather by a one-sided 12 round majority decision six years ago by the scores 116-112, 117-111 and 114-114. The judge that scored it a draw at 114-114, C.J Ross, was criticized heavily by the boxing fans, because the Mayweather-Canelo fight was completely one-sided. Canelo was dominated so badly that it was non-competitive. The 114-114 score was similar to some of the scoring in the first Canelo vs. Gennady Golovkin fight last year, which saw one judge score the fight to Canelo by a 10 rounds to 2 score, and another having it as a 114-114 draw.

“We would love to do a rematch,” said Gomez to RingTV.com. “Floyd is retired and we respect that, but if he comes back…If Floyd wants a rematch with Canelo, no problem. Would Canelo win the rematch? He’s a different animal now. He’s not that kid that fought Floyd. He’s a full-fledged man!”

Mayweather, 41, brought up the idea of making a ring return for a rematch against 39-year-old WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Manny Pacquiao, but it remains to be seen if that fight is going to take place. Some boxing fans believe that Mayweather wasn’t serious when he mentioned wanting to fight Pacquiao in a rematch. It would be hard for Mayweather to return to the ring after a one-year layoff to fight someone as big and as strong as Canelo, who is in his prime right now at 28-years-old. It would be a different story for Mayweather to face Canelo now. He would need to fight him at 160, a division that Mayweather has never fought in. Mayweather looked slow in his last fight against Conor McGregor last year in August 2017. Without his hand speed and ring movement, Mayweather would have tremendous problems with Canelo’s power, size, speed and youth.

Mayweather fought Canelo at a catch-weight of 152 pounds in 2013. It’s probable that Mayweather wouldn’t agree to a rematch with Canelo unless he was willing to fight him at 154. Would Canelo be willing to drop down to 154 to fight Mayweather? If not, he probably wouldn’t get the fight with him. Mayweather would likely be slow at 160.