He’s got 2-3 fights left at the elite level He should forget about the bivol nonsense (which he won’t) & strike a 2 fight deal with PBC That include - Charlo as a tune up Before Benevidez Then he could slide back in with fast car Eddie & do 1 last one in Mexico against whoever & Then call it a career, Which he won’t - he will likely go the Roy Jones path of KTFO.
"You people" SMH Can't take you seriously. You're definitely bias if you think Canelo is the same fighter. He won't even risk his 168 titles against Bivol.
Thing is I don't know who do you people think Canelo was, some hybrid primed RJJ mixed with shades of Ali, Robinson and prime Tyson, and now suddenly he is 2015 RJJ because he couldn't KO Ryder, he wasn't that good when he arguably lost twice to old GGG nor he is that washed up today. He always took calculated risks, he understands pretty well fighting Bivol again equal to loosing, so it's better to loose at a weight isn't your league than loosing at your natural weight right now and dropping the titles which may give him some other profitable fights in the future. Any version of Canelo is beaten by 2022-2023 Bivol at 168 or 175.
The only differences between Canelo from around 2018 or so until now is that, -He fell in love with his power and likes loading up on power shots to the detriment of skillset versatility -His stamina has gotten worse as a result of him spamming power shots -He became obsessed about pursuing 'greatness', which has only resulted in him being hated on even more after the steroid accusations As a side note about pursuing greatness, Canelo hasn't said a word about that in a while. It seems to have come to an end after Bivol beat some sense into him, but on the other hand if by some miracle he managed to beat Bivol in the rematch, he will probably re-embark on the quest haha.
I think part of the problem is that he isn't getting up for some of these opponents. I think he looked at a 5 loss, one stoppage loss John Ryder and figured he could recover slower from that surgery and spend a few more days on the links. I think he underestimated Bivol too. I think he thought it was another Lara who was going to try to land three jabs and that he could land two jabs and a hook and win the round. It's hard to understand why he misjudged it so badly, but can't complain about someone aiming for greatness. Plus fighters always underperform during the big homecoming.
Just watched the highlights of Ryder, so can't say anything educated about that one. I didn't feel he had declined in previous fights, though. His stamina has never been great and Bivol is a level or two above anyone Canelo had faced before, taking his size into the equation.
I respect your opinion, he may well be on the slide because of age¿? or because of the wear and tear he has have, but I didn't see signs of it this weekend
You can't fight at Brit Level that often and not pay a heavy toll for it. Even in defeat we will take a piece of your soul And obviously his attempts to try and hang at Eurasian level against Brother G and Brother Dmitry took their toll too. He should be 1-3 against my Eurasian brothers and the lone win came against the geriatric shot corpse of Brother G
I saw it in his last 3 fights His gas tank has been the biggest problem in each fight I also feel the speed is slowly retracting as well It will only speed up from here
Is it possible that since he was caught taking peds, that he is now, performing appropriately, to his natural level?
Lots of good posts above: - motivation isn't quite where it was before - some wear and tear, he started very young - he's fallen in love with his power, and always tries to come forward with a high guard; this makes him more predictable - he was previously getting overrated, people were thinking he could give Usyk a tough fight! He's still elite, but isn't quite where he was before. TBH I thought he took it easy on old man GGG, but perhaps he didn't. Perhaps even as GGG has slipped, he's slipped a bit too.
If you are getting hit a hell of a lot easier in your last 3 fights, that is a worrying sign. Even a finished GGG gave Canelo issues in the last few rounds of their final fight. As you saw with Riddick Bowe, it takes 1-2 final fights for brutal brain damage.