Canelos SMW opponents & how many contests at 168 they had when he beat them: Charlo 0 Ryder 11 GGG 0 Plant 21 BJS 3 Yildrim 10 Smith 27 Fielding 28 Total of 100 SMW contests combined. Also notable is (if you delve deeper) there's a lot of chronic inactivity between them all as well. I'd add too that probably the best wins between them are a near 40 year old Anthony Direll & shopworn George Groves. That's pretty **** poor. Ye all this is probably boring trivia for some but I think it HLs more the dire state of SMW today. It's basically Canelos stomping ground & outlet for showcasing his skills against a crop of money grabbing sell outs & former MWs etc That's Canelos legacy at SMW. Great fighter all in all yes, but this SMW division barely has any SMWs let alone any credibility.
He cleared out the division very quickly and fought everyone apart from Benavidez. Remember that Benavidez got stripped from his WBC title for not making weight so Canelo fought Yildrim for the vacant title. I remember reading that fighters like Plant and Saunders would cause Canelo trouble with their slickness, and that Callum Smith would be too big for Canelo. You have to give him credit for his 3 wins over them. John Ryder was also a very good win - he’d beat Charlo at 168. Not his fault that 168 is weaker compared to 10+ years ago. Hopefully he ends it with a win over Benavidez as that’s the last guy he needs to beat at the weight in my opinion.
How many fights at the weight the guys have is a kinda moot point, seeing as Canelo has only what, 8? Fights there himself. He went to a division where all the champs wouldn't fight each other and got them to fight him because of the paydays. If he whoops Benavides there's nothing that can be said. It would be a complete cleanout of a division with Benavidez not even holding a belt there....
