It isn't only the way Floyd Mayweather outclassed Mexico’s 23-year-old challenger, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, last Saturday night awhich makes the case for the now 45-0 undefeated 36-year-old being lauded as the best in the history of the sport at any weight.

It’s the fact his dominance of the sport is inarguable, not only inside but also outside the ring.

In terms of skill there is no fighter on the planet who has fought at the elite level for so long with such consistency.

Moreover it is arguable that his level of performance has been higher in the his last two fights – against first Robert Guerrero in May and now Saul Alvarez — pointing to the reintroduction of his father into his team as a masterstroke as he enters the final chapter of his career.

At times on Saturday, Mayweather’s control was so complete we could have been watching an exhibition bout rather than one of the biggest and most eagerly anticipated fights of the past decade, one that most commentators believed would be the toughest test faced by the eight-time five-weight world champion.

Alvarez, after all, was bringing to the ring a considerable natural weight advantage, knockout power, handspeed, and had put together his own impressive unbeaten record over 42 outings as a pro.

But Mayweather exists on an entirely different plane from the competition. This was evidenced in the way he schooled his much stronger and younger opponent in every department — speed, timing, accuracy, footwork, movement, defence and punch selection.

It was a near perfect performance over 12 rounds, though the same level of performance could not be claimed by the judges scoring the fight, specifically the controversial CJ Ross, who inexplicably and criminally scored it a draw.

But no matter, everyone else who saw the fight has been unanimous in their acknowledgement of Mayweather’s dominance not just of this particular fight but boxing in general.

Even prior to his landmark deal with the Showtime pay-per-view network for six fights over 30 months, which began in May with the Guerrero fight, he had amassed a mind-boggling fortune in ring earnings.

His Showtime deal is thought to guarantee him in the region of $200 million, though with the Alvarez fight estimated to have brought him $41 million alone, this may be an underestimate.

What we do know for certain is that it is one of the biggest financial packages in sports, evidence that he’s transcended boxing as only a small handful of his predecessors have — namely Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard and Mike Tyson in his prime.

Through his own company, Mayweather Promotions, Mayweather commands all the revenue from pay-per-view, tickets sales, and sponsorship, while covering all of the costs of the promotion including the purses of his opponents. This level of control by a fighter is unprecedented and unlikely to occur again for many a year — if that.

But there is a downside. The lifestyle of obscene luxury he enjoys and never tires of bragging about reveals the ugly side of the sport and the society in which it is located.

Waking up every morning in a home the size of a shopping mall surrounded by flunkies and sycophants — their every smile bought and paid for — Mayweather embraces a vulgarity and an excess that sums up the corrosive and dehumanising side of the American dream.

It is a mindset in which human happiness is the product of material wealth and the ability to buy what you want, including people, when you want it.

It is the measure of a society sick with greed at one end of the spectrum and crippled by despair and unremitting poverty at the other.

So contrived is Mayweather’s lifestyle that perhaps the only place he now experiences anything resembling honesty in his life is the ring. Fortunately for him, then, that there he reigns supreme — even, it seems, over Father Time judging by his last two performances.

For Mayweather betrays no hint of the symptoms of long-term physical damage we’ve come to expect from champions who fight on past the point they should — the slurred speech or unsteady gait commensurate with a life in the ring. After 45 fights this in itself is a remarkable feat.

As to whom he fights next, the name on most people’s lips is Britain’s Amir Khan.

Khan will have to come through his next fight against Devon Alexander in order to make this viable, but assuming he does the prospect of him fighting Mayweather next May brings with it the intriguing possibility of it being held in Britain, given Mayweather’s pledge to fight here before he retires.

With Khan’s aggressive style and handspeed this would make for an exciting and explosive contest, though it is hard to see him achieving what 45 opponents have thus far failed to and handing Mayweather his first defeat.

Unlike probably any other fighter in the history of the sport, Mayweather is master of all he surveys.