Canelo and his team don't talk for the sake of talking. They usually follow through on their plans too. Everyone said Trout and Lara were bad for Canelo, he still fought them. Many people said GGG would KO Canelo, he still fought him, twice. People said BJ Saunders was a bad style matchup, he still fought him. People say Beterbiev and Bivol are too much for Canelo, I'm sure he'll fight them if they are already starting to create some buzz for those potential fights.
Canelo will never fight Trout, Lara, Golovkin, Jacobs, Smith, Saunders...... We've heard this song many times before.
So 22JM agrees that age is just a number. That's odd. In another thread 22JM downplayed Fury's win over Wladimir due to age.
Ring age, and actual age are two different things. The Great Erik Morales was shot before his 28th birthday. He had also been fighting pro since age 16. Sergio Martinez, Gennady Golovkin, Bernard Hopkins all turned pro well into their 20s, and fought at the highest level late into their 30s. Many factors play into ring age not just those, but Wlad was definitely well past his best.
This^ Canelo deserves credit for getting all the belts together and sorting everything out, but let's not pretend like Smith, Saunders or Plant are anything special. Everyone both before and after has maintained that the three of them are poor champions. And it's shown, given how competitive guys like Trout, Lara and Jacobs (also fighters who in the grand scheme of things, are nothing special) were compared to Smith and Saunders winning three rounds between them.... at most Plant's tragic story and humble personality make him very likable. You start to feel for him, and you want him to win. But I've long thought that he's amongst the worst champions in all of boxing. I see absolutely nothing special about him aside from some quick hands. I have no doubt that Canelo will **** him up. I like these fights. There should be absolutely no excuses should Canelo win, unless the reasons are really ****ing obvious like how badly drained they've been or something. He won't get it, but he should.
To be fair, Beterbiev looked good in his 2019 fight against Gvozdyk but was far from unhittable. That's not the point its the fact iBeterbiev will be 37/38 by the time Canelo fights him (GGG was 36, Mayweather 36..you see there is a trend, big aging names). Not saying Beterbiev will be shot by then but at these weights reflexes, speed (both essential even if they don't necessarily have outstanding reflexes/speed) tend to decline 32-33 onwards (obviously this depends on them having been in wars or having an extensive amateur record which Beterbiev has so by no means this is the cut off point obviously) . Re Kovalev and Saunders. Kovalev was an obvious sparring session/ fixed fight. If that was an actual Kovalev in there Canelo should be ashamed of himself for fighting an obviously concussed guy who happened to forget everything he has shown against bigger stronger dudes (ie actual intention on punches, throwing anything apart from a probing jabs, not looking hesistant to Canelos counters, actually utilising his pacey in out and lateral footwork) Saunders was a blown up 160lber who had looked mediocre in his last three fights and hadn't had a real world level fight since 2017. Let's not pretend Plant is some unhittable slickster, Canelo should win a decision against him