LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather all but guaranteed Saturday night he’ll retire from boxing after the final four f𝐆ights of his six-fight d🎃eal with Showtime are complete, and he’s targeted September 2015 for the farewell bout.
“I’ve only got 24 moꦆnths left,” the 36-yearౠ-old Mayweather said after his systematic dismantling of Saul Canelo Alvarez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Amazingly, there are still those who are bored by Mayweather’s brilliance, which was on full display against 📖a game but frustrated Alvarez. His experience and superb boxing skills provided a riddle the 23-year-old Mexican never solved. The cinnamon-haired puncher hardly landed a solid shot on the elusive Mayweather, who piled up points with jabs, qu🎉ick combinations and snapping right hands.
“I just took my time, and when the opportunitiཧes presented themselves, I took advantage of them,” Mayweather said.
Judge C.J. R🎶oss somehow scored the fight a draw, 114-114. The other 16,000 people in the ꦍbuilding knew it wasn’t even close. Judge Dave Moretti had it 116-112 while judge Craig Metcalfe called it 117-111. The Post saw Mayweather a 118-110 winner.
“He’s very fast,” Alvarez said. “I didn’t really feel his punches. ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚThey weren’t really that strong. But he was scoring points.”
The one-sided nature of the bout may have been disappointing to those who prefer the toe-to-toe slugfests that draw b💮lood. But Mayweather’s talent should be appreciated during the little time he has left in the sport. Alvarez appeared to be a worthy challenger, who brought a 42-0-1 record with 30 knockouts into the ring. Mayweather, 44-0 with 26 knockouts coming in, was just a 2½-to-1 favorite. It would be youth and strength versus skills and experience. In the end, Mayweather’s ring generalship frustrated Alvarez the same way it did Robert Guerrero, Miguel Cotto, Shane Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez and Oscar De La Hoya.
“I had a game plan,🐟 bu⭕t he took me out of it and I didn’t have an answer for it,” Alvarez said.
It will never be a toe-to-toe slugfest when Mayweather is in the ring. “When you get to this level you have two thinkers,” Mayweather said. “Canelo’s a think𓆉er. I’m 🐈a thinker. That was chess.”
Mayweather spent much of his post-fight pre𒐪ss conference praising Alvarez.
“He’sಞ an up and coming champion against a legendary champion,” Mayweather said. “He has everything he needs to be a legend in the sport. This was just my night.”
Mayweather won the fight despite temporarily abandon🧜ing his jab after feeling as if he dislocated his elbow in the fifth or six round. He also said he wished he’d thr꧅own more combinations toward the end of the fight.
“I can’t say this was my best performance🍌,” he said. “I’ve still got four fights left with Showtime and CBS.”
Matching the hype of Mayweather-Canelo — which was expected to be the richest bout in boxing histor𝕴y — will be difficult. A capacity crowd of 12,000 for the weigh-in on Friday was followed by a sellout crowd of 16,746 for the bout. An estimated $200 million in revenue could be generated.
Futur🐷e opponents could include Danny Garcia of Philadelphia, who scored a unanimous decision over Lucas Matthysse on the undercard, to retain the unified super lightweight title. Mayweather said a potential bout with Manny Pacquiao was “not my focus.”
Mayweather figures to dominate whoever the oppꩵonent is.
“It’s a once in lifetime, once in a generation and maybe once in history that you see a talent like this,” Richard Schaefer of Golden Boy Promotions said of Mayweather. “Canelo 🃏is a young, strong guy and Floyd just dominated him.”
No one se🀅emed to tire of Tiger Woods winning all 𒁏those majors or Usain Bolt winning all those races.
Enjoy Mayweather’s greatness while you can.