Taylor has the height, reach, and skills to outbox Canelo. The issue is he wastes alot of nervous energy in fights and always faded down the stretch. So I'm a bit concerned for Taylor late on in the fight vs Canelo. Honestly I'd probably go with Canelo by late stoppage even though I'm not a fan of Canelo.
Canelo has a lot going for him when he was in his prime. Good right hand, excellent left hook, powerful uppercuts, fast hands, excellent body punching, excellent head movement and counter punching. Yet there was always something missing. He really did struggle when guys made him move. He wasn't the most adaptable fighter in that sense. His work rate was also never the best. Canelo had all the makings of a h2h all time great but he never got there. As his career went on, he became a one punch at a time low volume type of fighter. Yet i am trying to remember the younger version from 2016-2021 who was very good and had a lot going for him.
The Canelo that lost to Crawford was considerably past his prime and I thought that quite apparent in the last few years. That's why I was baffled why people considered Canelo such a huge favourite. Especially when Crawford had height and reach advantages and his actual walking around weight isn't that much different to Canelo. The version of Canelo recently was basically going through the motions hand picking opponents and going 12 rounds in dull low output fights. Quite a striking contrast from the Canelo in his prime Middleweight days.
I'm taking Taylor via a close points win. Taylor really had two careers, Pre Pavlik and post Pavlik. I truly think he was badly injured in that KO losses and you can see it in the fights after. Taylor was beating Froch when he got caught with seconds left in the twelfth round but early, he looked great. After that, another late Ko loss to Abraham and he just never looked or sounded right after and has had all kinds of issues in retirement. Prime Taylor fought 24 even rounds with a weight drained atg in Hopkins, beat prime Ouma, Spinks, Joppy, Marquez and fought a draw with Winky. I think his size and jab are a problem for Canelo just like Bivol was.
He beat Munguia, a current 168 champ, widely in the year before fighting Crawford. He pitched a shutout against the unified 154 champ in thr fight before that. You don't get to invent history just because you dislike a fighter. He'd beat Taylor.
Canelo would put Taylor into his box, would land jabs on the front foot, back him up and land combinations head and body, and would win a decision or possibly late stoppage.
Munguia wasn't that highly thought of at the time and he got stopped in his next fight vs a feather fisted Frenchman. I can literally quote you a post prior the Canelo fight where I'm saying I didn't understand people heavily favouring Canelo. Its not hate its just obvious Canelo had been slowing down for the last few years of his career. He hasn't had a stoppage win in what 4 or 5 years ?
Munguia was undefeated and just easily won a belt. I also favored Crawford, but that’s because Crawford is truly great and not because Canelo is shot or in any way average. Floyd and Pac also stopped knocking people out eventually. It can be by design.
I favoured Crawford for a few reasons. 1. I thought Canelo was slowing down. 2. People exaggerated the size difference Crawford was taller with a 4 inch reach advantage, Crawfords's walking around weight is also like 180. 3. Canelo has always had slow feet I felt he would have trouble catching up to Crawford like he did Mayweather.
