LAS VEGAS — Canelo Alvarez‘s last two opponents, Josesito Lopez and Austin Trout, both hit the canvas on the way to losses against the Mexican star. Alvarez (42-0-1, 30 knockouts) floored Lopez three times, and Trout once.

His rival on Saturday at the MGM Grand, Floyd Mayweather Jr., says don’t expect the same to happen to him.

“Who’s going to be there for him to hit with the power? Who is he gonna hit? A stationary target? I’m not Lopez. I’m not Trout,” said Mayweather, who is 44-0 with 26 knockouts.

“I’m not a guy who is just going to stay right there and let a guy hit me with a right hand. And if you hit him with a right hand that big, then you should have finished him.”

A 36-year-old, five-division titlewinner who is THE RING’S No. 1-rated pound-for-pound fighter, Mayweather will pursue his ninth belt and earn a guaranteed purse of $41.5 million against Alvarez, 23.

Mayweather attributes his career longevity to a strict workout regimen, abstinence from drugs and alcohol outside of the ring, and a penchant for defensive wizardry that prevents him from taking many blows inside of the ring.

“I haven’t done my body bad. I didn’t disrespect my body and treat it bad. I ate healthy. Of course I eat junk food, but I try to eat a solid meal everyday, stay working out, stay going to the gym, and there’s no drugs or alcohol. I’ve never abused my body I should say. That’s why I’m where I’m at today — still going strong at 36,” said Mayweather.

“If I was getting hit by guys two and three and four times, I wouldn’t have lasted this long. So, everybody that criticized me early in my career said, ‘Mayweather is all defense.’ Well, if I’m doing pay-per-view numbers like I’m doing, and I’m all defense, then I need to keep it up. This is going to be the same thing right here. Nothing will change.”

That includes Mayweather’s unbeaten record, the fighter said.

“I guess that other fighters would look at it as, ‘You win some, you lose some.’ Me, I look at it as, ‘I want to win them all,'” said Mayweather. “I’m a winner, and I like to win. It doesn’t matter if it’s boxing or anything else. I’m a winner, and I love to win. I was born a winner and I’m gonna die a winner.”

But unbeaten lightweight Karl Dargan, who, with undefeated junior welterweight Keandre Gibson, served as sparring partners for Alvarez, gives Alvarez a decent shot to defeat Mayweather.

“He’s definitely got power. We sparred in 16-ounce gloves, but they fight in 10-ounce gloves. So I could see where he hurts a lot of people and gets a lot of people out of there. I roll off of punches a lot, so that even when I get hit cleanly, I don’t get the full effect because I roll. I’m not saying that his punches aren’t hard, because he’s really, really strong,” said Dargan.

“I don’t think that he’s just hyped up. I think that he’s for real. He definitely has the attributes to beat Floyd. He just has to listen to his corner, and the attributes that he has, he has to use them at the right place and at the right time, and if he does that, then I could see him coming out with the victory.”

Mayweather, meanwhile, fielded questions about his right hand — injured during his unanimous decision victory over Robert Guerrero in May by saying, “My right hand feels good,” and, “like I said before, it’s just another fight, I’m telling you.'”

Asked if it was special for him to face Alvarez on Mexican Independence Day weekend, Mayweather said, “No, it’s special for Canelo to face me,” adding, “The holiday can’t fight for him.”

Photo by Naoki Fukuda

Lem Satterfield can be reached at [email protected]