Miguel Canto Appreciation Thread

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Canto was indeed ranked alongside Duran, Napoles and Monzon as an ATG. One might have expected him to have been an inaugural IBHOF inductee along with Monzon and Napoles, but he had to wait eight more years. Still, he got in at a reasonably early time in Canastota's history.

 

Yeah, I'm sure that his contemporaries at the time considered him as such, perhaps rightly so. Retrospect is sometimes a useful perspective, sometimes not. Canto deserves to be in the mix where discussion of the best of his era is concerned, no doubt.

 

I'm on board.

 

Canto was the Joe Louis of the Fly's in a way.You can't leave him out when talking about all time great flyweights.

Like Louis though, for me he's one of those fighters who rates higher overall than head to head.His size and penchant for counterpunching would mean he's always likely to struggle against the better Flyweights imo.

 

I think he could give Ohba problems just by making him miss the jab and not being able to follow up or get any sense of rhythm or timing against him. Zapata probably is a step too far for him, in a boring fight though.

It was not as though he waited for openings for counters, he went and made them, which takes advantage of his size.

 

I disagree.He was very much a make you miss and make you pay fighter, albeit a consistent no-bull**** one not prone to over elaborate displays of defence for defence' sake.

 

He had a nice jab that he would lead with, but most of his other shots were all counters. But he made the openings for them by feinting and sliding inside. What I am saying is that he was not a passive counter-puncher like, say, Zapata could be at times.

 

:good

 

Other than Fighting Harada I'm not sure I'd favour any flyweight over Canto in a series between them.

Maybe Mark Johnson, who had extreme physical tools, but even there I wouldn't put it past Canto to outsmart him...

 

Interesting.

I always thought Pascual Perez has a very good shot to beat Canto, in fact I think his style is a pretty good foil for him. And Benny Lynch wouldn't be easy either IMO. I'd say these are maybe just under 50-50 in favour off Perez and Lynch IMO.

What about a Light Flyweight Jung Koo Chang, would you give him a shot?

 

Perez would have a chance but I still think Canto would take it. Canto was one of those defensive fighters that were good at making their body a small target and I think that will foil Perez from establishing the groundwork he'd need to grind Canto down.

Chang would have a chance, as he fights much in the mould of Harada, but I'm not as high on Chang defensively speaking as a lot here are and I think Canto will get many scoring shots off on Jung. I fancy Canto to do more offensive work than Zapata too, who did well to make Chang miss a lot of shots, but didn't make him pay. I think Canto will, enough to edge more rounds than he loses anyway.

Harada of course wasn't an overly astute defensive fighter either, so what gives Harada the edge over Chang? Well, I think Harada had a better jab which would be important in de-stabilising Canto and keeping him off balance. Harada was great at working the jab in order to find a way in and land subsequent shots. The jab is always an important tool in facing defensive fighters imo.

 

This generally sums up why I can't warm up to Locche and why I really like Canto.

 

Chang's footspeed is key for him against Canto imo.He'll be able to move in and out on Canto, and get off his explosive surges a lot easier with Canto being much smaller than Zapata(who had a fiarly similar workrate in that fight to Miguel's usual imo).as an aside i actually thought Chang was outboxing zapata on the outside for much of the first half of the bout, due to his quickness and that was with a supposedly injured leg.

It's a hand and footspeed fight imo, though if Canto can sucker him into exerting constant pressure and making it more of a technical inside fight, he could surprise with his shorter, better technical punching.

Canto has a good style for beating the similarly stocky Perez, i agree there.Pascual is better at smashing up more orthodox boxer-punchers i'd say.

 

Locche is the most over the top caricatature like of defensive stylists, so i can see why some can't get into him.I dig him a lot, but sometimes he does get a bit too Hamed with fundamentals for my liking.

 

I always thought Perez's in and out, almost trotting, movement as he delivers his combinations would allow him to get 'in' on Canto and away without Canto really being able to deliver any effective counters. Also the change in angles make him even more awkward for a defensive wizard like Canto IMO.

In Canto making his body smaller, that is an excellent point but I don't think Perez is too discerning when targets are presented at him, he looks to me like he would just shift his aim elsewhere or just pound Canto's arm's protecting his body.

Canto will have some success catching Perez as he trots in but Perez IMO will be landing the more damaging shots and landing more often.

Lora sums up the fight really well IMO.

I do think you are selling Chang a bit short here. He had a fairly good jab but also had perhaps a better inside and mid-range game than Harada in the way he was more well rounded when on the offensive.

I agree with this.

I think Canto does better against more 'orthodox' fighters.