CANELO: BEST EVER? OR AM I TOO EARLY?

[caldo2025]

I’m not a Canelo fan from the start but with each fight, this guy is doing things that can not be ignored. If you look at this guy’s hit list thus far, you can’t pick another all time great that would clearly have a better resume right? You’d be lying to yourself.

Again, not a Canelo guy and always rooting for his opponent but come on now. This kid is f’ng nasty and I don’t think there’s a human at or around his weight that could bring it to him. He will kill Boo Boo and plant Plant. This kid demolishes people and comes out of every fight unmarked. It’s time. Time to give this kid his all time due status.

[DrDuke]

It's too early to judge to what particular extent Canelo is great, but he's already in the spot of the ATG boxers, that's for sure. He'll be in the HOF 100%, while he's already has a better skillset and resume than a number of HOF fighters.

[Monzon83]

Greatest of this era, easily IMO. What he's done already qualifies him as an ATG right now, if he goes on to unify at LHW then then he has to be in the conversation as GOAT.

I think CW is a bridge to far for him but i wouldn't rule out him getting a belt there eventually.

[emallini]

ATG definitely. He is brilliant.

[Tevfik1907]

You should watch how he lost to Golovkin first.



You can make an excuse for him losing to Floyd, due to being too young (23) when they fight, even that, it's still a bad excuse. Muhammad Ali was undisputed heavyweight champ when he was 21, and Mike Tyson was the same in his 21, they were in their prime, Canelo not being in his prime when he was 23 is his problem.

First he needs to win the ''undisputed'' smw title, then you can argue that despite losing to Golovkin.

[armageto]

Let's not get carried away here. To me, he's a modern great of this era. If he keeps it going, he can definitely be an ATG. I think he's a very talented fighter. A few things to consider, however:

1, He could easily have 2-4 more losses on his resume.

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

3. Possible PED use.

I can't knock him for unifying an even bad division. Same goes for Crawford at 140. Broner is a 4 weight division champion. Belts today aren't the hardest to obtain. A lot of belts, a lot of bad champions.

At this trajectory, Canelo will be in ATG listings. Is and could he get to top 10, I don't see it. I can see him squeezing inside the top 20 however. Is he the best ever? No, IMO.

[Boxerbeetle]

Definitely not the best ever; he won’t even surpass Mayweather imo.

[squiggy]

He's not even close to surpassing Mayweather.

[fanman]

Pretty hard to surpass Mayweather.
He is already great.

But for a case to be the goat, finish unifying 168, step up and unify 175, maybe beat ggg in a trilogy.

There will always be arguments that prime may would beat him at light middle, prime ggg at 160, and that's just in his era, never mind all time greats of the past.

He's certainly great. But better than Rjj, better than Mayweather, James toney, Marvin hagler. Maybe not, but in the conversation at least, and still making history.

[Cent0089]

If he wanna get to Mayweather and Pacquiao level there is lot of work to do. Plant, Charlo, Benavidez, Beterbiev, Bivol, Berlanga, Andrade. He need to fight and defeat at least 3 or 4 of these guys to get on Manny and Floyd level IMO.

[JoeCorrao]

I’m not a Canelo fan from the start but with each fight, this guy is doing things that can not be ignored. If you look at this guy’s hit list thus far, you can’t pick another all time great that would clearly have a better resume right? You’d be lying to yourself.

Again, not a Canelo guy and always rooting for his opponent but come on now. This kid is f’ng nasty and I don’t think there’s a human at or around his weight that could bring it to him. He will kill Boo Boo and plant Plant. This kid demolishes people and comes out of every fight unmarked. It’s time. Time to give this kid his all time due status.

Best EVER? Ya hardly...you could give him 2 losses to GGG and I think most people would agree. He's a cash cow for the business now and he is careful who he fights. Shoulda fought GGG 4 years earlier, and had the 3rd fight already.

[Loftgroov]

Best of his era, and he'll be an ATG for certain, but best ever? No.

Aside from the Mayweather loss early in his career, he did lose the first fight to GGG.

There are also the ongoing suspicions he's a juicer, or at least has been in the past.

Top top fighter though, no question.

[gilgamesh]

Let's not get carried away here. To me, he's a modern great of this era. If he keeps it going, he can definitely be an ATG. I think he's a very talented fighter. A few things to consider, however:

1, He could easily have 2-4 more losses on his resume.

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

3. Possible PED use.

I can't knock him for unifying an even bad division. Same goes for Crawford at 140. Broner is a 4 weight division champion. Belts today aren't the hardest to obtain. A lot of belts, a lot of bad champions.

At this trajectory, Canelo will be in ATG listings. Is and could he get to top 10, I don't see it. I can see him squeezing inside the top 20 however. Is he the best ever? No, IMO.

I think he should have 2 more losses on his resume, but he's done well other than that.

He's had a fantastic career.

[Loki]

Let's not get carried away here. To me, he's a modern great of this era. If he keeps it going, he can definitely be an ATG. I think he's a very talented fighter. A few things to consider, however:

1, He could easily have 2-4 more losses on his resume.

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

3. Possible PED use.

I can't knock him for unifying an even bad division. Same goes for Crawford at 140. Broner is a 4 weight division champion. Belts today aren't the hardest to obtain. A lot of belts, a lot of bad champions.

At this trajectory, Canelo will be in ATG listings. Is and could he get to top 10, I don't see it. I can see him squeezing inside the top 20 however. Is he the best ever? No, IMO.

He should have two more loses on his record. Just watched both GGG fights (without commentary) and I had GGG winning both by two clear rounds.

I thought the second when I first watched it was closer.

[JoeCorrao]

Let's not get carried away here. To me, he's a modern great of this era. If he keeps it going, he can definitely be an ATG. I think he's a very talented fighter. A few things to consider, however:

1, He could easily have 2-4 more losses on his resume.

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

3. Possible PED use.

I can't knock him for unifying an even bad division. Same goes for Crawford at 140. Broner is a 4 weight division champion. Belts today aren't the hardest to obtain. A lot of belts, a lot of bad champions.

At this trajectory, Canelo will be in ATG listings. Is and could he get to top 10, I don't see it. I can see him squeezing inside the top 20 however. Is he the best ever? No, IMO.

He should have two more loses on his record. Just watched both GGG fights (without commentary) and I had GGG winning both by two clear rounds.

I thought the second when I first watched it was closer.

Agree 100%...the 1st one was criminal the 2nd a tad less so

[whatashambles]

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

Exactly. Of his wins so far, I'd say only 3/4 of those are against HOFs.

Compare him to Floyd, for example, (and yes criticisms can be made about his timing of some of these) but potentially 8 of his wins were against HOFs. Same for Pacquiao.

His biggest problem is the lack of quality opponents but he's definitely helping himself by fighting regularly and blowing through them. If he unified SM this year and then LH in 2022/23 he'd deservedly get a lot of credit.

[candyslim]

Triple G beat him in the first fight, no question. I thought he edged the rematch too but I wouldn't question the eyesight / judgement of anyone who had Canelo winning the second. Because of what I saw as one huge injustice followed by a lesser one, I was not enamoured with Canelo in any way, but he has grudgingly won me over until now it's not even grudgingly.

I am now convinced he is the current number one p4p and an ATG. Is he the GOAT though? No definitely not, but ask me again in five years.

[Impractical Poster]

Mayweather handled him quite easily despite the absurd 114-114 card. Had it been competitive and lost he'd have a better case to surpass Floyd with his current and future potential accomplishments. But seeing as how the fight played out, I can't see Canelo surpassing Floyd as an atg no matter what else he does in his career.

[candyslim]

Would you still think that if he became the undisputed champion at cruiserweight?

I'm not suggesting that's a likely development btw, but I'm just hopefully illustrating the point that one loss when you are still improving (or post prime of course) shouldn't define your career, and shouldn't automatically mean you are forever bound to be in the shadow of he or she who once beat you.

[lazboy]

Triple G beat him in the first fight, no question. I thought he edged the rematch too but I wouldn't question the eyesight / judgement of anyone who had Canelo winning the second. Because of what I saw as one huge injustice followed by a lesser one, I was not enamoured with Canelo in any way, but he has grudgingly won me over until now it's not even grudgingly.

I am now convinced he is the current number one p4p and an ATG. Is he the GOAT though? No definitely not, but ask me again in five years.

[adislav123]

Let's not get carried away here. To me, he's a modern great of this era. If he keeps it going, he can definitely be an ATG. I think he's a very talented fighter. A few things to consider, however:

1, He could easily have 2-4 more losses on his resume.

2. Unifying 168 is a great feat, first to ever do it. Most unification's are tough because of money. Being the money man though, fights are easy to make. Who did he beat for the belts? Rocky Fielding, Callum Smith, BJS, and probably Plant. Will ANY of these guys be remembered in 10 years after they retire? Are any of these guys even in the top 30 P4P?

3. Possible PED use.

I can't knock him for unifying an even bad division. Same goes for Crawford at 140. Broner is a 4 weight division champion. Belts today aren't the hardest to obtain. A lot of belts, a lot of bad champions.

At this trajectory, Canelo will be in ATG listings. Is and could he get to top 10, I don't see it. I can see him squeezing inside the top 20 however. Is he the best ever? No, IMO.

He should have two more loses on his record. Just watched both GGG fights (without commentary) and I had GGG winning both by two clear rounds.

I thought the second when I first watched it was closer.

Agree 100%...the 1st one was criminal the 2nd a tad less so

it really wasn't any less corrupt considering ggg was the frikkin champion for how many years?

if anybody really thinks canelo did enough in that 2nd fight to dethrone the middleweight champion in his 20th fornicating defence then fine, it's their opinion.

[Enlightened-One]

CANELO: BEST EVER? OR AM I TOO EARLY?

It's good to be positive and optimistic sometimes, but he's not the "best ever".

It’s very difficult the determine whom the best ever is in boxing, because it’s almost impossible to compare eras.

The traditional point-of-view is that Sugar Ray Robinson is the best ever. And I doubt that common perception will ever change.

That said, Canelo has achieved more than any currently active fighter (not named Pacquiao) and has probably topped boxing’s current pound-for-pound list for the last 2½ years.

I’m hoping he remains at 168lbs and enjoys a lengthy title reign, but I think he’ll be greedy, by making a permanent jump to 175lbs towards the end of next year, where he’ll be at risk of losing to lesser talented foes, simply because of their size advantage.

Anyway, Canelo has progressed beyond Hall-of-Fame status and now deserves to be considered an all-time-great.

And I’d say he deserves to be rated amongst the top-fifty fighters of all time, though it’s difficult to gauge a precise rating for him, because he’s achieved a lot more than other greats, even though he’s less pugilistically-talented than them.

[gilgamesh]

I'm not sure about Top 50 of all time, but he may well get there if he continues having the kinda run he's had for the last 4 or 5 years for the same amount of time or close to it.

I'm really not sure which fights could further his legacy at this point. Beterbiev definitely would, and other Light Heavy guys. I'd love to see him fight Benavidez personally. Plant would be good too.

I'm not really sure which fight it would take to elevate him to Top 50 of all time status. I suppose just a series of convincing wins over these types of guys could well get him there.

I still have a hard time looking past the fact that his biggest win was a robbery.

[pg_1]

Canelo Alvarez is nowhere being best ever in my opinion, but he is a really fine fighter. He lost widely to Mayweather, lost to GGG in their first match imo, he got the benefit of the doubt against Lara, but I think he has improved greatly for that experience and is really sharp these days in all areas of the game. I admire his dedication and what he's done at different weights. He'll be remembered as an ATG at some level, I guess.

[ironbeard]

Canelo has extremely little chance of becoming overall GOAT of boxing, but he does have a legit shot at GOAT of Mexico if he keeps going. He has had a great career if it ended today.

I do think that Canelo has the potential (at this point) to eclipse FMJ if he continues on his current trajectory, even though he lost to Floyd, and even though he clearly lost to 3G. It is an extremely heavy lift, though, that he is unlikely to be able to make.

Admittedly, I do not see FMJ on the pedestal that many others do.