This one's not even close. Lets take Mayweather and Pacquiao out of the question for a minute. You have Alvarez and Rios. Now take a poll of 100 people, 1000 people, hell, take a poll of a million people. Lets just poll all of Rios' relatives. See my point?
.
The Rios fight was necessary for Pacquiao, coming off the magnitude of his loss to Marquez. However, that fight was just what it should have been. It was an easy touch-up designed to bring Pacquiao back before fans and to boost what might have been shaken confidence. There was NO reason for ANYONE to believe that Rios could win unless the KO loss to Marquez took more out of Pacquiao than we knew.
.
Alvarez is worlds better than Rios ever was or will be. That's just In the ring. Outside, he's every bit as popular as Oscar de la Hoya was during his prime. A red-headed Mexican who looks Irish. It doesn't get more popular than that. If anyone even mentioned Rios and Alvarez in the same sentence, you probably should consider not talking boxing with that person.
.
In the ring is more of the same. Alvarez is a strong puncher with sound skills. You could question his quality of opposition but the fact is that he won consistently before facing Mayweather.
.
By contrast, Rios is nothing more than a mouthy, one dimensional club fighter. Pacquiao won because he should have won. The fact that Pacquiao didn't stop Rios is what should be questioned. I'm still trying to figure out why some people hype that fight up so much. It proved only one thing, that Pacquiao has trouble motivating himself for C-level fighters and that it's likely that his heart might not even be in the game anymore.
.
Truth hurts the Pacquiao fans.
*Mayweather, a true Welterweight, was fighting the unified, undefeated Jr Middleweight champion, who had an age, size, weight, and power advantages. This fight, on paper, presented many risks to older, smaller Mayweather. That risk is one of the reasons the fight broke records in sales.
That is more impressive than fighting. Jr Welterweight who was just coming off a loss and who had no advantage in any category. The sales here reflect the obvious outcome.
Mayweather over Canelo was most impressive.
Mayweather vs. Canelo.
Canelo win is better. He was coming off a huge win against the top ranked Light Middleweight aside from himself, becoming the champion of the division. Mayweather is a welterweight who moved up to fight the champion of the division. He wasn't a bum or over the hill.
Pacquiao beat a bum coming off a loss, who shouldn't have been in the same ring as him anyway.
The Canelo win is better. Lets not get too carried away with the Canelo win though. He could easily lose to Angulo and take a career nose dive. Rios is terrible in comparison to Pacquiao he should never have been in the same ring as him, but Pacquiao annihilated him, and looked sensational doing it. I loved watching that fight. Floyd's fight was boring as hell. Canelo never went for the kill in the final rounds, what a joke.
The Canelo fight of course, unless, Floyd was able to convince him to take a dive and he agreed to it so the fight could be made and he stands to make a lot of money while Floyd retains his 0-loss record untouched. What if SMARTY Businessman Floyd told Canelo and his handlers, " I will give you the fight but you have to make sure you lose, otherwise, no deal."
Pac had a real war to prove, which is that he's still alive and have stopping power and heart till the end.
Mayweather was a great cherry pick of a not-so-riped-yet fighter in Canelo. Plus he already saw what he liked before willing to take the fight.
Pac's fight was to tough it out with a tough puncher. Complete shutdown.
mayweathers top condition or pacquiaos coming off a concussion?
either...!!
lolz.. you've been whoop by nightmare bwahhahahah...
nice jab nightmare
What was more impressive? A 36 year old Floyd coming up in weight to beat the very skilled #1 fighter at 154 , or A 34 year old Manny beating a younger slow flat-footed fighter coming up in weight to 147 where he never fought before? This should be a very easy answer. Mayweather vs Canelo.
