By Tom Donelson / Member Boxing Writers Association of America / Respected in boxing reporting, and a loyal contributor to www.dmboxing.com since 2008

Saul Alvarez is one of the best pound for pound and has been for the past decade, but Canelo has another distinction. As great of a career he has, there are two fighters that he lost reinforced the greatness of two other fighters, Floyd Mayweather and Terrace Crawford. Both fights had similarity, with both Mayweather and Crawford moving up to fight Alvarez who was the bigger fighter.

Thirteen years ago, a 36-year-old Floyd Mayweather undefeated at 44-0 faced a 23-year-old Alvarez. Alvarez was the younger fighter but at 23, he had a 42-0-1 and was coming into his peak. But the older Mayweather gave Alvarez a boxing lesson as he connected on 46 percent of the fight versus only 22 percent for Alvarez and Mayweather landed 42 percent of his jab whereas Alvarez was ineffectual at only 15 percent. The only controversy was not that Mayweather was the winner, but one judge had it a 114-114 draw. As one ESPN writer noted, “Mayweather, 36, of Las Vegas, fought like a man years younger, as usual. He landed his right hand almost at will and peppered Alvarez with solid jabs. Mayweather was so quick, he evaded nearly ever heavy shot Alvarez threw.”   And Alvarez noted after the fight Mayweather was very elusive and acknowledged that at the end of the fight, he was frustrated. Mayweather was 150 pounds below the 152-catch weight and Alvarez made weight but after rehydration, he walked into the right at 165 pounds. CompuBox had Mayweather landing 232 punches out of 595 punches and Alvarez only connected on 117 punches out of 525 thrown. Mayweather who retired with 50-0 record, showed his mastery over a younger fighter.

Terrance Crawford was the older fighter as 37 and undefeated 41-0 whereas the 35-year-old Alvarez was the bigger fighter. Crawford was moving up to two weight classes. Crawford won 19 championship bouts whereas Alveraz won 23 so they were two of the more dominant fighters.  Alvarez was the natural bigger fighter and more experienced since the Mayweather fight, while Crawford won the intern WBO intern championship against Israil Madrimov but hardly impressive event in his first attempt in the junior Middleweight.

Crawford moved up to Alvarez’s weigh and won against the bigger man. Most of the unofficial scorecards had Crawford winning big. ESPN had 118-110, 10 rounds to 2 and I had it 11 rounds to one. When you look at CompuBox, it was a close fight with Crawford landing 115-99 but round by round, Alvarez had more punches landed in 6 rounds to Crawford 5 with one even, but Crawford landed more jabs and threw more punches while he was close in landing power shots 70 to Alvarez 83. Alvarez never had Crawford in trouble but there was couple of times that Alvarez was staggered.

For Alvarez, these two fights are bookends of a great career, but they showed that Mayweather and Crawford were two of the best pound for pound fighters even after their peak as they managed to keep their hand speed in their thirties. What they have in common is that they beat one of the best pound for pound fighters for the past decade and half.