Mayweather vs. Canelo 2013: Floyd's Speed Will Lead Him to 45th Win over Alvarez

There are a lot of reasons people believe that Floyd "Money" Mayweather will be able to defeat Saul "Canelo" Alvarez this Saturday, Sept. 14, but in the end, it will be his speed that will bring Money his 45th career win.

Make no mistake about it, this is going to be one of Mayweather's biggest tests. He may be 44-0 over his career with 26 knockouts, but Canelo brings an almost equally impressive record into the ring, albeit against lesser competition. Canelo, at just 23 years old, has gone 42-0-1 with 30 knockouts over his career.  

That's right, it's a battle of undefeated boxers.

What makes Canelo such an impressive fighter? It's his offense. He does a great job landing blows with his impressive accuracy, while also putting some extra heat behind each punch. That combination of power and accuracy has helped him coast through the competition heading into this match.

At the same time, one knock against Canelo is that he has stamina issues, and he has yet to fight an elite fighter like Mayweather. Chances are that he's not going to be prepared for the skill set that Mayweather brings, specifically his speed and endurance.

Speed has been such a valuable asset for Mayweather. Even at 36 years old, he's done a great job moving around the ring, making people miss and making them pay with his quick hands.

Mayweather's ability to land punches and quickly avoid punches is what makes him such an incredible fighter.  According to CompuBox, Mayweather lands 41 percent of his shots while his opponents only land 17 percent of theirs.  He's so fast and elusive that he just makes his opponents miss.

Money was able to do just that during his fight against Robert Guerrero.  Despite Guerrero being really aggressive and throwing 581 total punches, he landed just 19 percent of them, according to CompuBox.

This is going to be a critical advantage for Mayweather, especially if the fight goes the distance. Money isn't considered a knockout fighter, and he's used to drawing out fights. In his last five fights, four of them went the distance, with the other coming by way of a fourth-round knockout over Victor Ortiz back in 2011.

While Mayweather will try to keep the pace up in the later rounds, Canelo will likely wear down. He tends to get tired during the later rounds, and his power and accuracy tend to start dipping.

This is where Mayweather will take Canelo down.

Canelo will start missing more and more punches as the fight goes on, and Mayweather will make him pay with his great talent for counter-punching. He's done this in so many fights before that no one will be surprised when Money is named the winner.

A win for Canelo would change his career forever, but it's Money we're talking about. His speed combined with all of his other assets will lead him to victory, and Floyd will stay undefeated as yet another contender falls.