Mayweather vs. Canelo: Convincing Win Proves Money May Will Retire Undefeated

Floyd Mayweather's unblemished record survived another challenge on Saturday as the legendary boxer easily defeated rising star Saul "Canelo" Alvarez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Canelo represented the fighter with the best chance of preventing Mayweather from retiring undefeated, but after a lackluster performance from the Mexican, there's no reason to believe that Money May will suffer a single loss before he leaves the sport.

Prior to his victory over Robert Guerrero in May, the 36-year-old champion talked about his retirement, per Dan Rafael of ESPN.com:

"

In 30 months my career is over, ... I want to rack up my six victories and hopefully do commentating and keep the sport of boxing alive. That's what I'm focused on.

"

For a boxer who is much older than a lot of his top competition (he's 13 years older than Canelo), Mayweather possesses remarkable speed, quickness, balance, and the ability to unleash devastating counterpunches when the opponent makes a costly mistake.

You could make a case that with more experience, Mayweather has gotten stronger with age.

One of the biggest keys to his recent success has been a dedicated training program that allows him to have great stamina and speed in later rounds. Money May has gone the full 12 rounds in eight fights since 2006, and he's been the better fighter past the 10th round in just about all of them.

But the real reason why Mayweather will finish his storied career without a loss is because there's no elite challenger for him.

Canelo could become a worthy opponent for Mayweather in a year or two, but after a disappointing performance on Saturday, the young Mexican won't be able to give Money May a real challenge unless he drastically improves.

Austin Trout (26-1-0) is another up-and-coming fighter who could challenge Mayweather at some point, but his defeat to Canelo in April didn't help his pursuit of landing a megafight with an opponent of Money May's caliber.

Danny Garcia (27-0-0) could earn a shot against Mayweather after his exciting victory over Lucas Matthysse in Saturday's undercard, but his chances of pulling off a historic upset are incredibly small given his inexperience.

Of course, a long-awaited bout with chief rival Manny Pacquiao is still possible. But after years of refusing to step into the ring against each other, does anyone really believe that this fight will ever happen?

Mayweather has nothing left to prove at this stage of his career. He's going to be considered one of the greatest boxers regardless of how his career finishes.

But with no opponent capable of beating him, in addition to the fact that he's actually become more difficult to beat with age, it's hard to envision Mayweather retiring with a loss.

He's going to join Rocky Marciano on the small list of champions who have retired undefeated.

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