Carl Froch explains why he would have been ‘too much’ for Canelo Alvarez in his prime

Canelo is aiming to complete is collection of super middleweight belts in Las Vegas on Saturday

Froch is a former super middleweight champion (Getty Images)

Carl Froch believes he would have beaten Canelo Alvarez had the two ever fought in their prime.

Canelo is aiming to complete is collection of super middleweight belts in Las Vegas on Saturday when he takes on Caleb Plant, and will cement his legacy as undisputed champion and one of the all-time greats of the division. And Froch, himself a former super middleweight champion, says he would have “loved” to fight Canelo.

“Me in my prime at about 34, 35-years-old against Canelo Alvarez, I think I would have been too much for him,” Froch told Pro Boxing Fans. “I beat Lucian Bute in that obliteration and I had the rematch with [Mikkel] Kessler and then two [George] Groves fights, which I wasn’t fully motivated for the first Groves fight, but I was for the second. I was a mature, seasoned, professional world champion. I had suffered defeats, come back and won.

“I think that myself, the viewers and the listeners can think what they want, but I back myself in fights. Against smaller people like Arthur Abraham, who was knocking everybody over and everybody was frightened to death of getting in with him, I just totally outboxed him and battered him like he’d never been battered before.

“So, when I look at Canelo Alvarez and I’ve met him and shook his hand before the [Billy Joe] Saunders fight, because we’ve interviewed him on DAZN. I was looking at him and sizing him up and he’s about 5ft 8 and I shook his hand and his hands aren’t very big.

“We didn’t have a pull or a push or anything, it was amicable! But I was looking at him thinking, ‘I’m not so sure you’d get near me and if you did I’m happy to put one into you, because of the size’. But who knows. At the time I would have took the fight, it would have been amazing.”

Canelo has not lost any of his past 15 fights since his only career loss, to Floyd Mayweather in 2013.