Canelo Alvarez insists he doesn't view his loss to Floyd Mayweather in 2013 as a defeat, instead opting to view the fight as a "learning curve".
The now-legendary pound-for-pound great was still a young fighter when he agreed to face Mayweather in Las Vegas for the super-welterweight world titles. He had drawn once in his early career, but had otherwise been flawless in going 42-0-1 and picking up unified gold at 154lb.
However, he wasn't yet ready at just 23 years old for then 44-0 Mayweather, who bossed the fight from start-to-finish and went on to amass a 50-0 record before retiring. Afterwards, Alvarez went on a tear, winning world titles as high as light-heavyweight before eventually tasting defeat for a second time almost a decade later against Dmitry Bivol.
“I’ve always said that I don’t take it as a defeat, I take it as a big learning curve in my career,” Canelo told the DAZN show, The Making of Canelo. “The biggest lesson I learned was that I didn’t want to feel what you feel when you lose.”
During the trailer for the documentary-style show, which was released on the streaming platform in the lead-up to his fight this weekend with Gennady Golovkin, Alvarez admits that he "wanted to make history". His now-promoter Eddie Hearn is also seen espousing how "you just don't fight Floyd Mayweather at that age".
To put Alvarez's effort into context, even Logan Paul, the inexperienced YouTuber with just two fights to his name when he faced Mayweather, did it at 26, three years older than Alvarez was at the time. The Mexican faced a near-prime Mayweather who was still years from beating Manny Pacquiao and Conor McGregor before retiring, while Paul did it when the legendary fighter was in his 40s.
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The bout ended in a Majority Decision for Mayweather, but it was ultimately a relatively comfortable performance. Alvarez did as he said, though, and learned a lot from the experience, with fans clamouring for the pair to have a rematch despite the American's retirement.
Mayweather has claimed that the fight was a "cake walk", telling reporters last year: “I’m going tell you the truth about Canelo – motherf***er [was] easy. A cake walk, easy. Y’all sitting up here, y’all praising this dude, this dude was nothing. I was almost 40 years old when I cooked this dude, easy.”
Years later, the issues between the pair appear to still be raw, with Mayweather even betting on Bivol as a significant underdog for their fight back in May. He ended up winning his $10,000 bet, meaning he walked away with a $42,500 profit given the Russian's odds going into the bout.
