Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
RingsideIntel
Canelo Alvarez Gives Surprising Thoughts On How UFC Dream Fight Versus Prime Kamaru Usman Would Have Gone
By Jason Burgos,
4 hours ago
Ryan Hafey & Alex Sánchez/Premier Boxing Champions
In a recent interview with former UFC welterweight king Kamaru Usman, boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez offered some interesting thoughts on a dream fight between the two at the height of the MMA star’s success.
The UFC’s rapid growth to mainstream notoriety over the last 30 years has created some interesting debates among fight fans. For decades, supporters argued about dream fights between boxers from different generations. However, in recent years the discourse has switched to dream fights between boxing and UFC stars.
Quite a few UFC champions have publicly called for bouts against the best of boxing. However, those calls have often fallen on deaf ears. However, former UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou lived out his dream and nearly defeated boxing legend Tyson Fury in a scrap last year.
One of Ngannou’s pals, Kamaru Usman, once made a push for a bout with Canelo Alvarez during the peak of his dominant run as UFC welterweight champ. Unsurprisingly the fight never came close to happening, but the pair of fighting greatest recently spoke about the potential match and Alvarez admitted if it had happened in the Octagon, it would not have gone well for him.
Canelo Alvarez admits a fight in the UFC would have been a serious ‘challenge’
“You are the best in your sport. I’m the best in my sport, [and] I respect that,” Alvarez said during an appearance on Usman’s “ Pound 4 Pound ” podcast. “We’re never going to know because we never made the fight. I always say that’s why you chose MMA and I chose boxing.
“If I go in there with you in an MMA fight it’s gonna be different. If you come to my sport it’s gonna be different. I know the mentality of ‘Oh, I can do it.’ When you go into the ring it’s very different. If I go into the Octagon I say I can do it but it’s way different. But it’s a good mentality because you’re looking for a challenge.”
“Different” is a confident fighter’s way of saying they would likely lose. There is no doubt Usman would have been in trouble in a boxing ring against Canelo Alvarez. However, it would be exactly the same if the Mexican legend faced “The Nigerian Nightmare” in the Octagon.
It’s still surprising nonetheless for the boxing icon to admit he can’t win a fight anywhere, no matter how much success he has had in his sport.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Comments / 0