Few days ago I've stumbled upon clips of Toney and RJJ beating John Ruiz. I honestly don't think many people understand how crazy it is for two 5'9 / 5'10 middleweights to beat a 6'2 240 lbs world champion, however terrible he was compared to the other champs. So let's teleport prime Canelo and prime GGG into the 2010s HW landspace, straight to the dark ages. How would they fare? Could they snatch a title from a Charles Martin or a Stiverne? Maybe beat somebody like Arreola or Helenius? How accomplished would they be? Or replace them with Toney and RJJ. Could they beat John Ruiz as well? KO an old Holyfield and perform like that against Rahman, Oquendo and Peter?
I don't think they could. At least not in the same way Roy did. Roy had the perfect attribute for a smaller guy to beat a bigger guy - speed - and his style forced Ruiz to fight plodding forwards and unable to keep Jones in his awful looking clinch for long. What Jones did is insane, and due to these two reasons, I think it's a feat only he could've achieved. Canelo and GGG are aggressive, don't particularly like to keep on the move and would find a lot of their physical qualities working against them. Their faith in their power could get them stopped, their faith in their chins could get them stopped. I don't think they have the style for it, and I don't know if there's a champ around that time who they could beat.
I see Canelo pretty similar to Toney in style and skills, but its up to debate if he can carry the weight as well as Toney did. GGG is a long shot though, pressuring HWs behind a jab ain't gonna work.
John Ruiz must have been one of the crappiest Hght Champs that walked the earth, getting his ass kicked twice by former middle weight s.
Nah man. Neither Canelo nor GGG had the athleticism nor the reflexes of 03" Roy. Toney was already fighting at 190 pounds plus around that time and was looking pretty solid physically so it was no surprise that he would step up to HW after beating Jirov. With Canelo and GGG I just don't see it, despite Martin and Stiverne being 2 of the weakest titilists of all time.
Golovkin beats them all up because he has a KO % of 88 and none of them ever saw a crusher like him. or Canelo might do OK against certain opponents because he's got great defence and picks his spots well. Against a randomized heavyweight field they both suffer, but moreso GGG because he has got a killer mindset and that doesn't work so well when the other guy is 50lb heavier than you every fight.
Jones was an established solid light heavyweight Champion with many title defenses under his belt. Toney was a heavyweight football player before he started boxing. Toney proved himself first at Cruiserweight, defeating the tough as nails Champion Jirov. Ruiz was a mediocre Champ, but still relatively solid. I think he is a little underrated. Both Toney and Roy have been busted for steroids at some point if I'm not mistaking. To me, Canelo's absolute heaviest division should be 175lbs. He would likely be about as effective as Bobby Czyz was. With the right guy a little rolly polly version of Canelo might win i suppose, but i can't really see it. As for GGG, he would have had to start building into it, all the way back in 2010 to take a career risk like that. GGG was a natural middleweight, not a heavyweight, and would likely be remembered as an undersized weight division drifter instead of an dominant great middleweight champ.
GGG should be on your avatar with Floyd and Bivol, with Crawford pending. I do see GGG at the bottom though looking in, like he knows he belongs there.
I will start by saying that both of them would be less suited to the challenge stylistically, than Jones and Toney. I wouldn't count them out entirely, because of how f*****g good they both are/were, but they both have a mountain to climb.