Greater victory, Whitaker/Vasquez or Mayweather/Alvarez?

Though Canelo has gone on to be a greater fighter than Vasquez, I voted Whittaker/Vasquez, for the following reasons:

1) Size of the victor - Despite Mayweather's first world title being at SFW & Whittaker never boxing below LW, the broad shouldered, long armed 5ft 8ins Mayweather, was naturally bigger than the 5ft 6ins Whittaker. Whittaker was always undersized at WW, let alone LMW, whereas Mayweather grew/filled out into a natural WW, evidenced by taking a $600,000 fine vs JMM, to weigh in at 146lbs, rather than making the 144lbs catchweight.

2) Catchweight/suspicion of rehydration clause - Whilst Canelo is bigger than Vasquez, I feel this was more than offset by the fact that the Whittaker/Vasquez contest was at 154lbs, which was Julio's weight division. Canelo, who started his 155lbs "Caneloweight" from his very next fight, such was his difficulty making 154lbs, had to make 152lbs vs Floyd. Furthermore, Canelo is reported as being 172lbs on fight night in his previous contest vs Trout & 174lbs in his next vs Angulo. He was reported as 165lbs on fight night vs Mayweather. This is highly irregular, imo, and whilst I have no proof, I suspect there was a rehydration limit of 165lbs that the contract dictated would be kept out of the public domain. We know those things happen & perhaps Canelo's team learned from that, when they did similar to Kovalev. Either way, Canelo was 22, probably drained, and a million miles away from the fighter that went on to dominate at SMW & get schooled by Bivol.

There are reasons why an older version of Mayweather was far more dominant vs Canelo, than he was vs faded ODLH. The faded version of ODLH he fought was substantially better than the version of Canelo that he fought.

 

I agree, that faded version of Oscar looked better than Canelo.

 

Cannot compare young canelo vs mature delahoya.
Plus ODLH had a world class jab which worked for cotto as well.
Styles make fights.

 

I agree, as evidenced by Mayweather's respective fights against them, the faded ODLH fighting in his preferred weight division, was a level above a young, drained Canelo.

 

I always always far more impressed with Mayweather's win personally. Canelo was already a top 10 pfp regarded fighter and i thought Pea would comfortably beat Vasquez.

 

Whitaker by a country mile. Mayweather wouldn't fight Canelo unless he was able to drain him.

 

Mayweather vs Alvarez, it was more of an anticipated title bout as both were undefeated, the victory was very impressive for Mayweather.

 

It’s Mayweather over Canelo. It was a passing of the torch fight gone wrong. That almost never happens.

Chavez passed it to Oscar, Holmes passed it to Tyson, Holyfield passed it to Lewis, and Duran passed it to Leonard (2nd try). That’s supposed to be a one way street.

 

Agree wholeheartedly with your second point. This isn't to say Floyd doesn't deserve massive kudos for taking on Canelo's challenge, but Canelo wasn't the fighter he would become.

However, if I recall correctly, Alvarez imposed the weight clause on himself (no doubt influenced by his eagerness to finalize the deal with Floyd).

I have to differ with you on the first point, and, ultimately, your conclusion. If anyone is naturally bigger between Floyd and Pernell, it is the latter. We don't have to speculate on fight night weights in this case either because all four are known. Pernell always hovered slightly above Floyd in weight, both as they were exiting the amateur ranks and as they were ending their careers (based on fight night weights).

But that is only a small part of why I settled on Floyd's being the superior victory for this pair of fights. What sway me in the end are the quality of their respective opponents and the manner of the victory. Though Vasquez is underrated today, Canelo still comes out the better figher, in my opinion. Mayweather also washed Canelo, where Whitaker just snuck by on my card.

 

FMJ Vs. Canelo

 

If we're emphasizing how green Canelo was for Mayweather, we should do the same for Wright in his bout with Vasquez. He was up and down for that encounter like a yo-yo, and still almost won.

 

Whitaker - Vazquez was an out and out robbery, a pre-determined outcome to try to sell Pernell as a 4 division champ. Julio schooled his ass.