I think Canelo has the style to beat Beterbiev if the stars align.

Nah, it’s not crazy to say, if it wasn’t for the size advantage I honestly beleive Canelo would WHOOP Beterbiev, it’s a favorable style match up for Canelo..

He has a shot as things are, but I think Beterbiev will be too big and strong for him. He would likely get marked up in the process of a decision or late round TKO though.

TLDR - I agree!

 

No.

 

Even though I can see why you'd think that I disagree. Beterbiev is way too high volume, he will almost certainly overwhelm Canelo by the middle to late rounds. Counter punchers HATE guys that just keep throwing, throwing, throwing... All the body work that Beterbiev does will slow Canelo down faster than he slowed down against Bivol. At that point Beterbiev will completely take over and TKO him.

 

Yea but if you believe that the first 2 GGG encounters were "robberies" then you're predisposed to giving any remotely close round to Canelo's opponent, therefore you'd never score a Canelo Beterbiev bout in Canelo's favor because you'll say Beterbiev was throwing more, maybe landing a few more each round and giving him rounds for that despite Canelo being the one with the better overall skill and the one landing the more significant and eye catching shots, as he did against GGG in the first 2 encounters.

Simply put, Canelo's haters score against him because they see Canelo's opponent's arms moving more and they try to count punches as if it's an amateur match and they refuse to see the fact that Canelo is the one landing the better shots, even while throwing less punches. That's what happened against GGG. So you're right Smithy about his ability to beat Beterbiev but if you're still in the GGG robbery camp then you're really not scoring Canelo's matches with any sincerity.

 

With Beterbiev, it isn't just power. He brings physicality to the table. GGG while he had power was not what I would consider to be a physical fighter. He's not going to ruff fighters up on the inside. He's not going to pound on you (pause) in the clinch. He isn't going to try to physically muscle you around the ring. That **** is taxing. If a fighter isn't on the move like Bivol, Beterbiev is going to bring that type of fight. Everyone knows Canelo doesn't move like that. On top of that he is low volume. What is stopping Beterbiev from making it a physical fight all night long? One might say Canelo's counter punching. Loading up on single explosive shots is not enough to deter Beterbiev. The bottom line is Canelo is just too small and he doesn't have the style to avoid fighting Beterbiev's fight. I could foresee Canelo starting off well but not being able to keep up with the pace and start to wear down. Beterbiev's pace won't change and he finishes Canelo late.

 

I'm assuming you pick Smithy to win?

Beterbiev is Smithy and Canelo is GGG.

Just pick a winner.

 

maybe in five years time when beterbiev is dragged out of retirement and canelo has been mainlining tren

 

Canelo is too small and his gas tank isn't good enough to cope with Beterbiev; the fight will end with Beterbiev clubbing Canelo whilst he languishes on the ropes.

 

Been hearing Rumblings that Canelo and Beterbiev are negotiating terms for a fight next year. It makes sense since the Eubanks fight has been shot down by Canelo directly.

 

Smithy as in a nickname for the TC.

 

You see what you want to see. Canelo landed more body shots than GGG did, in either of the first 2 fights, despite the fact that GGG did block some with his elbows and arms. In the past I've went through several of the close rounds in their second fight and debated these very kind of punches, when GGG would tuck his elbows in and block some of the body shots partially, but half of the glove or more would still hit body around the elbow. Those are the kinds of things that happened in their first 2 fights, there were many partially blocked punches, or punches that didn't land flush but still could be scored, the interpretations of such punches determining many rounds. But my point, to which you cannot deny, is that in the first 2 fights, and in the 3rd of course, was that for however many more punches you could credit GGG for landing throughout the fight, the bigger, more impactful, more eye catching, more significant punches when it comes to scoring shots were landed by Canelo, and that is why I personally scored both of the first 2 for Canelo. While at the same time recognizing how close each fight was and that you could make an argument that GGG did enough to win then, they were by no means convincing or clear wins for GGG and were certainly not "robberies". Claiming that either of those first 2 were "robberies" or were easy to score in favor of GGG is frankly a very casual view as GGG winning was clearly the "popular" "mainstream" narrative coming out of those two. The true sweet scientists who weren't invested in GGG winning would have noticed what Canelo was doing and how effective he was and would score it appropriately.

Canelo did not struggle vs GGG in the 3rd fight, he completely dominated GGG over the first 8 or 9 rounds before GGG finally started to fight and did a mini-comeback in the last 3 or so rounds.

GGG didn't clearly win anything vs Canelo, Canelo was the better fighter each time, landed the better shots, showed he had better skills and better ability to adjust. I personally thought his performance in the 1st fight was more impressive than the 2nd fight, given the skills and tactics he utilized, but both were impressive in their own right for different reasons. And I've always maintained that GGG fought very well in both of the first two fights and deserves credit for taking Canelo into deep waters, arguably deeper waters than he ever had been in before (including vs Mayweather and vs Bivol) but in the end, Canelo proved each time that he was better than GGG in various ways. That's not a knock on GGG, just an accurate view of what happened. And of course many GGG fans would disagree with me and claim these were easy to score wins for GGG. To each your own, but unlike those types, I don't claim that either of the first 2 fights was easy to score or was even clear wins. Both were very hard to score and came down to your personal preference and interpretation of various close rounds.

 

I know you want to protect your reputation with Canelo, boxing gym and all that.

Pick a winner.

 

Canelo has the punching power to deter Beterbiev more than anyone he's ever fought. Not that Canelo is necessarily the biggest puncher Artur has ever fought, but he has the skills to hang in the pocket all night and land big shots again and again while having the chin to not be hurt or detered by Beterbiev's shots. Also it will be hard for Beterbiev land clean shots on the smaller man. Beterbiev's bigger body is a bigger target for Canelo to land shots. Canelo certainly has more power to deter Beterbiev than Bivol did, and he wouldn't fight in such a negative backwards moving way as Bivol did. Canelo would fight Beterbiev in a more fan friendly way, coming foward, slipping and blocking his way inside, and when he gets in close quarters he has the ability to out-inside fight Beterbiev, i.e. winning the exchanges with the more accurate eye catching work.

It's a fascinating stylistic matchup, Beterbiev's work rate is a different kind of work rate than Canelo or Bivol in that he has power behind his punches, but he doesn't really have the punch technique of Canelo. Against a backwards moving Bivol, the judges preferred the come forward throwing more punches style of Artur, but against a fan friendly come forward style of Canelo who isn't going to be hurt by Beterbiev's punches, and with the skill of Canelo to get inside, stay inside and make it a fire fight, the smaller brave Canelo taking the fight to the Champion is going to give it a very David vs Goliath feel and to Smithy's point the judges would naturally favor the kind of style Canelo would bring to this fight, and all it would take is a couple of big clean shots landed by Canelo each round to give him the round, even if Beterbiev lands a few more each round, but are smothered by Canelo on the inside. What makes Canelo so great and why judges score for him is that he is a very patient fighter who looks for openings to land that big punch or two each round that gives him the round regardless of whatever else the opponent lands that round. That's also why he won the first 4 rounds vs Bivol, which is something that most on here still don't understand or admit happened.