UFC: Jorge Masvidal says he could ‘sleep’ Canelo Alvarez – ‘I’m 10 times the athlete’
- ‘Maybe I don’t hit harder, but I’m definitely bigger,’ Masvidal says
- ‘There’s elements where I could make it awkward for him, just like Conor McGregor did to Floyd Mayweather’
Newly crowned “BMF” champion Jorge Masvidal is confident that he is the man to derail four-weight world boxing champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
The 35-year-old Masvidal (professional MMA record 35-13) who beat Nate Diaz to earn the UFC’s inaugural “bad a** [expletive]” belt in November, insisted that his mixed-martial arts background would cause Alvarez problems in the boxing ring, despite the Mexican’s superior technique.
“I consider myself 10 times the athlete [Alvarez] is just because of MMA in general,” Masvidal told the Dan Le Batard Show on ESPN. “All the strength, speed and power you have to generate – to throw one kick is like throwing 10 right hands.
“The energy it takes to wrestle and pick somebody up in the air ... boxing’s just your weight, nobody cares. If I could shift those energy blocks and bring them down to boxing where I'm throwing 80 or 90 punches a round, I feel I could hurt this dude.”
Alvarez (professional boxing record 53-1-2) collected his fourth simultaneously held belt after an 11th-round knockout of Sergey Kovalev for the WBO world light heavyweight title. The DAZN pay-per-view coincided with the Masvidal vs Diaz-headlined UFC event.
The 29-year-old Alvarez has not lost in boxing since facing Floyd Mayweather Jnr in 2013 but has since entered into pound-for-pound best conversations. He has not expressed any intent on an MMA crossover.
