It's clear who the biggest threat to Canelo is. This would be a hell of a fight. How does it play out?
I have to be honest and say I haven’t seen Beterbiev box since the Gvozdyk fight and that was two years ago. Didn’t see the Browne fight. So I’m not sure whether or not he has regressed. At his age if the Canelo fight doesn’t happen soon the more his chances diminish. I think everyone will agree that for a fighter to beat Canelo they need to be able to seriously hurt him so there are only one or two at LHW you could see getting the job done. Fight has to happen next year otherwise Beterbiev will just be on a steep decline.
Canelo struggles (use that term loosely) with slick boxers, Beterbiev isn’t that. He can punch really hard but Canelo has a good chin. Beterbiev is fairly easy to hit and quite telegraphed in his punches. I think Canelo would read him fairly easily and win on points or late stoppage.
Beterbiev will be a step too far for Canelo at Light Heavy, unless they wait for him to age which they will probably try to do. Even through the TV, his punches sounded like cannons exploding off Brown, who must be in terrible pain today. Arum should offer Canelo a mega bucks a 2 fight deal, to fight Joe Smith (assuming he beats Johnson) followed By Beterbiev.
He struggled against Lara and Mayweather. Mayweather is in an entirely different class from all other "slick" boxers, and the fight was at 152. These days Canelo is far more composed, picks his shots and breaks the opposition down. Golovkin wasn't slick but he made Canelo work or lose rounds. Beterbiev has shown excellent stamina and power so far.
Canelo for me, I expect a similar fight to Kovalev. Late stoppage for Canelo. unless he gets tagged, but you can say that about any fight. Canelo will be too cute.
That version of Kovalev would get stopped within 6 by Beterbiev. So far AB has shown no signs of having stamina issues, unlike Kovalev who almost got finished by Yarde. It is almost cliched by now, but Beterbiev is Golovkin but bigger and stronger.
Christ almighty Canelo is massively overated now. It's amazing what good PR and corruption does in boxing. It's like people conveniently forget his fights against Golovkin (lost both) and his quick turnaround of Kovalev and hydration clauses. He's made out to have supernatural power which he doesn't. He is talented but he has been on the right end of numerous scorecards just because he has backing. I think Beterbiev can flatten him, no doubt he'll wait another year or so until he sees a poor performance or two, might even think that with the Browne fight.
Far better is really stretching it. The disparity in power and strength is significant. I still don't know how Beterbiev handles Canelo's creative counterpunching.