Floyd Mayweather Jr. is expecting a close fight between reigning World Boxing Council middleweight champion Miguel Cotto and Saúl "Canelo" Álvarez in November.

Mayweather is familiar with both fighters because he has defeated Álvarez and Cotto before. The reigning pound-for-pound king scored a unanimous decision win against Cotto in May 2012 and a majority decision victory against Álvarez in Sept. 2014.

However, when asked to give his take on the proposed showdown between the two middleweight superstars, Mayweather said he is unsure of who has the upper hand.

"Canelo and Cotto is an intriguing matchup," Mayweather told BoxingScene. "I think Cotto took more chances with me, but he took more punishment. Canelo is a very smart boxer though. Cotto, he box too a little bit. Later on in the fight he showed me that he had boxing skills."

Mayweather pointed out that Cotto still has the punching power to inflict damage to any opponent. Cotto has racked up 40 victories, 33 of which came by way of knockout.

The undefeated world champion also added that Cotto learned a lot from him because the Puerto Rican was a regular audience member during his training sessions before, when he was still under Top Rank Promotions.

"Before Cotto turned professional I was world champion, so he used to come in the gym every day and he used to watch me," Mayweather said. "To this day I still see Cotto making certain pivot moves that I do and I can't take nothing away from him. Cotto is a very strong, hard hitting guy."

On the other hand, Mayweather is also impressed with Canelo's boxing skills, which are the reason why he is having a hard time predicting the outcome of the proposed middleweight title fight.

"Canelo is a very sharp boxer, so it's a very intriguing matchup," Mayweather said of Álvarez, who holds a 45-1-1 record with 32 knockouts. "I don't know who I would put my money on."

Cotto and Álvarez will likely face each other on Nov. 21 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bout is not yet set in stone, though, because the two camps are still finalizing details of the HBO pay-per-view fight.

The two sides are reportedly at odds over the rematch clause in the deal, but Cotto's camp recently denied reports about it. Cotto's adviser, Gaby Peñagaricano, told BoxingScene there are still several factors that are being discussed, including promotional issues between Roc Nation Sports and Golden Boy Promotions.

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