Canelo Maintains P4P #1 - CBS Sports

Sure, I have thought for a long time that Spence deserved to he higher P4P than Bud. Spence has fought tougher fights and has dominted more rounds than Bud. Spence is harder to hit than Bud, has better footwork, and I would favor him to beat Bud if they fought. So I like that Spence is ranked higher than Bud. Stevenson's recent performance was very impressive, Usyk beating AJ isn't that impressive to me. AJ looked really bad in that fight, Usyk did what he had to do but AJ isn't a great Heavyweight in my opinion. He was exposed by Andy Ruiz and really is just an overly hyped body builder. Stevenson's recent performance was far more impressive to me thatn Usyk over AJ. He fought a better fighter and looked better against him.

Canelo still #1 because we know he took a big risk moving up in weight. He's been more active than other fighters on that list, had a fanastic 2021. I know a lot of fans will disagree but Spence and Bud need to fight each other. You shouldn't get crowned P4P #1 for sitting at home while Canelo is outworking everybody and taking big risks.

 

It's open for debate, but what has Bud or Usyk done to deserve the P4P? Bud has fought ONCE in each of the last 2 years against low risk fighters. Usyk beat AJ. Beating AJ or Shawn Porter then sitting on your ass makes you P4P #1? Canelo has been outworking everyone for many years and just took a huge risk at 175. If you put inactive fighters who haven't put in the work to prove they are the best P4P #1 you are rewarding fighters to sit on the couch and do nothing. All these guys are great fighters but Canelo has shown consistently over many years that he is the best fighter in the sport. A small set back at 175 against arguably the best LHW in the world doesn't change that. And it's not like he was dropped or stopped or something.

Bud and Spence need to fight each other, if they do the winner would have at least earned it. They are both great fighters, but they haven't proved that they are P4P #1. Neither has Usyk. Also none of these guys have the unique skill set that Canelo has. Canelo does things in the ring that these guys can only dream of. They may good fundamentals but have more basic skill sets. Canelo not only is a bigger puncher than these guys "P4P" but he shows upper body movement, ropes skills, he's a better body puncher. If we're just rating these guys on thier skills, Canelo clearly has shown a wider variety of skills, a unqiue skill set. That's not to say that he's better than Spence or Bud at what they do, those guys are great at what they do, but Canelo can do more. He can do more because he's a more versatile fighter.

That said, I totally get why people are dropping Canelo, he lost so that's no surprise. He did lose clearly but the reason why he lost had a lot to do with his gas tank more than anything. He still had his moments and showed he can hang with Bivol. In a rematch with a better performance and a better gas tank who knows what might happen. He took a big risk, lost but imho no one else has done enough to replace him at the top.

 

No I'm not ignoring that. It was a great accomplishment, but one of the best HW champs isn't as good as Bivol who is arguably the best LHW Champ. Many are picking Bivol to beat Beterbiev. And if Joe Smith somehow beats Beterbiev, or if he does better on the cards than he did against Bivol, which was a near shutout, if Beterbiev struggles, then Bivol will be seen as the best LHW.

Canelo is still the Undisputed at SMW, a distinction that you may be ignoring in the wake of the loss. But you have a fair point that becoming Undisputed at Cruiserweight was better than becoming Undisputed at SMW. That's probably your strongest point. BUT, with that said, even vs lesser competition at SMW, Canelo was more dominant and more impressive cleaning out SMW than Usyk was a Cruiserweight. When he beat a Briedis, it was a very close Majority Decision. That was an extremely tough hard fought decision. If Canelo won a fight like that, like he did against GGG, they would claim that Briedis was robbed. So yes Usyk fought tougher Champions at Cruiser to become Undisputed, but at the same time that win over Briedis wasn't convincing like Canelo's SMW wins were.

 

No worries mate, I'm just sharing their P4P Rankings. It's debatable who's P4P #1 at this point, there's no longer a consensus P4P #1 now, but Canelo still has a good argument that he's P4P #1, given his body of work and the risk he just took.