Did Mayweather beat a better version of Canelo?

The smaller version of Crawford that beat up Errol Spence would wash Canelo. Canelo beat way bigger guys than Crawford but couldn't beat Crawford. Bud was never above 170 before the canelo fight. Canelo was coming in the ring at 170 over a decade ago

Alverez was live and active in the final round chasing Mayweather down instead of laying back on the ropes huffing and puffing like he usually does when he's out of gas. So much for the "zombie canelo" you keep bitching about

 

Speculation.

He looked like **** the entire night

 

I think most people agreed the best version of Canelo was against GGG. Against Floyd, he was less experienced. At heavier weights, he was more one-dimensional.

Adding to all this, he is now older. I never thought about the age factor until I saw him against Crawford. You could almost see him get 10 years older during that same night. At the end, he was even about to get TKO'd. The only thing allowing him to look strong was his leg muscles. He was one clean punch away from being hurt. Look at the end of the 12th round; he was about to get shaky.

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No,
A younger version does not automatically = better.
Don’t diminish Bud’s victory.
Canelo struggles against pure boxers with range period but that doesn’t make the victory any less impressive. As bud did trade with him on the inside & got the better of those exchanges from the 9th as well as the championship rounds.

 

It's accurate speculation.

Canelo looked like crap because he fought a technically superior fighter. He looked like crap against Bivol too. Mayweather would beat any version of Canelo, you can't give a reason to why an older Canelo wins besides size. Canelo who is known for gas problems never gassed in that fight and rehydrated almost 15 pounds. Drained my ass

 

Drained is a fact. Floyd made sure that he blunted Canelo's fighting edge properly. Canelo learned his deck-stacking ways from Floyd.

 

I think prime Canelo is the first two GGG fights.

Its been a long time now where hes facing obvious stamina issues and his combination punching has all but disappeared.

So with that said, I’d say Bivol beat the best version of the three as far as timeline goes, and Crawford and Floyds versions are probably similar just on different sides of his career.

** asterisk being he showed surprisingly bad fight IQ vs Bivol. Didn’t attempt to make any adjustment, he fought like he accepted losing rounds and his power was gonna bail him out of a fight with a reigining, prime 175 champion….

 

Anyone trying to convince me that Canelo was stronger, smarter, and faster, and more patient vs Mayweather........I'm going to refuse to waste energy holding the conversation with them.

Canelo was no novice vs Floyd as some would try to argue. But he also wasn't prime as well. He clearly became a better fighter after the Floyd loss. I'd argue that he got complacent in his abilities recent given the opposition he's faced and the fact that none had the mindset to really upset him other than Bivol. It seems he's nothing more than a paycheck and marketing tool for many fighter's careers whom are calling him out. We saw it clearly with Charlo who he and his brother spent a great deal of time barking about him, GGG, Boo Boo, Danny Jacobs, etc......and when finally getting in the ring with one of them......we got survival antics from the opening round.

 

At least he tried to throw combinations back then. Dude adopted this one dimensional style with 0 jab and combos.

 

Throwing combinations dont make you a better fighter, Canelo HAD to change his style because he kept moving up.

 

I would say Floyd beat a better version of Canelo personally. Canelo looked pretty physically diminished against Bud compared to how he did against Mayweather. His legs were a lot stiffer, his knees looked gone, and he looked dead tired in the last 3rd of the fight after fighting a pretty conservative pace. He did lack experience at the top level of course and he went on to refine his craft a lot more later on his career with more intricate traps and set-ups especially, but he was also a more creative fighter when he fought Floyd. Young Canelo was a lot more willing to try out different strategies, to try 5-8 punch long combinations, to try working off the back-foot and ropes, to try working the jab more often, stuff like that. He was a lot more varied even if he was less refined in the particular areas he later found he excelled in. It is quite a shame that Canelo has gotten rid of so much of what he does so well in all honesty. He did actually used to have a good jab which he mixed with an educated long-guard, he had more variety to his movement, and he threw plenty of beautiful combinations. It reminds me of Chavez, where more and more of what made Canelo so brilliant was so slowly stripped away to deal with age, going up in weight, and because of either falling out of love with the sport or falling too badly in love with bad habits. There’s a poetic symmetry there between their two careers imo.

Side note: not trying to discredit Crawford's win. What he did is genuinely extraordinary. It will be a very, very long time before we see another lightweight becoming the undisputed, lineal super-middleweight world champion. And Canelo himself is still very good, even if he isn't the great fighter he once was (and don't get it twisted, he was a genuinely great fighter). Canelo would beat most of the rest of the division as it stands, and he put up a very good fight against Crawford even though he is somewhat diminished.

 

It's shocking that people still don't get this by now, or don't want to get this.

 

He only got slower and more one dimensional since fighting Floyd? You've got to be kidding me. He developed a ton of head movement, upper body movement, punching power, defense. If you think that Canelo was at his best when he fought Floyd, weight drained and inexperienced, not generally, but against someone as good as Floyd Mayweather, you've gone completely mad.

You don't draw and beat GGG by becoming slower and one dimensional. Canelo became a much better fighter after losing to Floyd and that's a fact. He lost to an incredible version of Floyd who looked way better than Floyd ever looked again from that point on. The problem is people exaggerating the ease of Floyd's win. If you see that fight as the close and competitive fight it was, all this makes more sense now.

 

No I don't think so. While he was definitely past his best against Crawford he had evolved a great deal from the green fighter that faced Mayweather to the fighter we know today. His head movement alone is much better now than it was against Floyd.

Fact is Crawford is so good he just makes guys look bad.

 

He did have something of a 12-punch combination on Floyd in Round 10 which was impressive. I get the wear and tear argument and the fact that he can no longer do the kind of things he did when he was younger, but that doesn't mean that he was better against Floyd. It was a very different dynamic. Canelo was too easy to hit against Floyd. Not enough head movement, was more one dimensional against Floyd. Now granted, he doesn't use the kind of head movement he developed after fighting Floyd anymore, so in that sense he's kind of back where he started. But in other areas he is way better, more experienced, etc.

Here's what I would say, desipte being outlanded to a far greater degree against Floyd than he was vs Crawford, Canelo actually dished out much more punishment on Floyd than he did on Bud. Canelo Mayweather was a fiercer fight you could say, with both men landing a lot of good shots. So you could say Canelo receieved more damage against Floyd, but also dished out more, and the evidence of this came from Floyd's own post-fight videos, in which he admitted he came out of that fight hurt and sore. Not only that, but Mayweather also fouled Canelo a ton, and even tried to bully him at times, whereas Crawford fought clean.

I agree he's not the same fighter he was between 2015-2021 lets say, and some of that has to do with not being as hungry now as he was, even against Mayweather. There's the benefit of experience going against the erosion of skill.

I just don't think that the Canelo who fought Mayweather would have been able to beat the Canelo who fought Bud. Today's Canelo could easily dispatch of the earlier version of himself who fought Floyd, just by walking him down. He wasn't an elusive target against Floyd like Bud was against him. Canelo does well against people who are easy to hit who don't have the best defense, like Canelo in 2013.

Only a sublime skillset like Crawford with a long reach has what it takes to do what he did to this Canelo. 152 Mayweather put on an incredible display of boxing that night, but despite what you hear from fans constantly exaggerating how good it was, it was far from a perfect performance. Canelo punished Floyd more than any other fighter had ever punished Mayweather, even while getting out landed and out boxed. Canelo was hit with some good shots by Floyd but was never really bothered by them.

One of the best versions of Canelo was the Canelo from the first GGG fight because he actually used footwork there, was slippery, elusive, and had big punching power. That version would have been a problem for anyone. So I hear you, and some of your take I can agree with, but I don't think Canelo was better in 2013 than he is today, in some areas yes, but not in other areas. He's definitely not the same fighter he was 5-10 years ago, but he's still a force to be reckoned with. And I'm not convinved he's done or washed like some people claim. I thought he fought a pretty damn good fight vs Crawford but he didn't impose his will and land the better eye catching shots like he usual does, and that's largely why he lost. But of course full credit to Bud who done the job and did it well.