Thurman says Canelo earned the right to choose opponents

Keith Thurman says that Mexican champion Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez has earned the right to choose his rivals, since “he learned from the best:” Floyd Mayweather Jr.

For Thurman, Canelo inherited Mayweather’s place as the top attraction in the sport of boxing and that is why he is now “starting to make really big money” like Floyd did, and still does.

“Canelo is Canelo and people love him.

“He has many followers. He has brought tons of excitement.

“You can tell he picks his opponents, but he learned that from the best.

“Floyd beat him. But now Canelo is making so much money in each fight, just like Floyd,” Thurman reasons.

The Mexican is the reigning undisputed world champion at 168 pounds and has only lost once in his many fights, against Mayweather.

Now, Canelo points to the WBC cruiserweight world, in the hands of Ilunga Makabu.

“It probably has a lot to do with having Andy Ruiz in camp (also training with Eddy Reynoso).

“He probably built his confidence up in the ring and training bigger guys, training heavyweights,” Keith Thurman thinks.

“So in Canelo’s mind, ‘If I can train heavyweight, he can fight cruiserweight.

“That’s my perspective on why Canelo would go into this with confidence and how a fighter could make that type of move with such confidence.

“I think that confidence would play a big factor because if you take a fighter like Ruiz out of his camp, then where does the idea [of fighting Makabu] come from?

“Who is putting those kinds of thoughts in Canelo’s ear, right?

“Another thing we know is when you become an undisputed: You have to pay all the sanctioning bodies…

“People of that caliber who earn such enormous amount of money, never love to pay such big amounts of money to all those sanctioning bodies,” assured Keith.

“We don’t love to pay those big fees to all those sanctioning bodies, three or four of them, wao,” Thurman said.

There is also a strong rumor of a possible defense of the Mexican, against the undefeated WBC middleweight world champion Jermall Charlo for May.

“We know that at a certain point, the fighter’s name can be above a belt.

“But, for ordinary people who don’t know much about boxing, when they hear the word ‘champion’, they understand the meaning.

“They don’t have to fully understand and wrap up what a world champion in boxing is.

“What the WBA, the IBF is they don’t need to know. But when they hear the word ‘champion’, that word just rings!

Canelo, is beyond that. He is the Mexican king.

“Canelo is a very proud fighter, he has achieved a lot and can do whatever he wants.

“This is what he wants to do, and this is what he is going to do,” Thurman said.