Could Canelo react Roy Jones' punches?

Canelo will have to throw his usual game plan out. He isn't counterpunching his way to a victory against Jones.

 

No, Canelo looked great at 175 and is getting better and better with each fight.

 

Same with Jones.

 

By faceplanting and sleeping, yes. That would be Canelo's reaction.

 

I thought you were the one living in reality. RJJ's the chinny one, not Canelo. Canelo's never been down in his whole career. What makes you think RJJ could sleep Canelo? Canelo has an iron chin, if anyone's being put to sleep here it's RJJ. Not only does Canelo have an iron chin who's never been put down, but he also has sublime head and upper body movement.

 

shadow111,

You really think that Canelo would have been in a seek and destroy mindset against a prime version of Roy?

Roy wasn’t chinny.

Asking what Canelo would do to Roy, based upon Del Valle knocking Roy down is skewed logic. Although Canelo is clearly a better fighter than Del Valle, Del Valle was a 6ft southpaw with a bigger reach. Del Valle hit Roy with a straight left hand.

Canelo is a 5’8 orthodox fighter with a small 70” reach.

He’s got great power, but would he have had the opportunity that Del Valle had in order to have landed it?

Plenty of Roy’s opponents had the power to have knocked him out. But they never got the opportunity.

Del Valle was a B level LHW.

John Ruiz was a B level HW.

Ruiz had height, reach and weight on him. Yet he couldn’t find him at all.

You don’t know that Canelo wouldn’t go down. Yes, Canelo is immensely strong and he can take a great shot. But Roy had great speed and power.

You also have no idea whether Canelo would get discouraged or not, or whether he would have been the aggressor.

These are bold statements to make.

He’s simply never seen anybody like a prime version of Roy.

The closest thing he’s seen was against Floyd when he was young.

Canelo avoiding Roy’s arsenal of shots before timing him and stopping him with his reach is highly unlikely. The odds on that would have been enormous.

Canelo has done nothing in his career for you to even consider this as a realistic possibility.

How would Canelo have coped with Roy’s speed and unorthodox style?

Based upon all of the evidence that we have to hand, the most likely scenario would have been a U/D for Roy, where Canelo would have struggled in catching up to him.

 

He is looking great. It’ll be interesting to see what happens after Plant. But Roy would have been a significant favourite over him.

 

A distinct possibility, but Roy was never a volume puncher, this would involve a lot of movement and posturing. I could see a low output early going with activity picking up in the middle rounds, in spurts. RJJ has better footwork and is faster on his feet, but Canelo is great at cutting off the ring. I think body shots would be a key for Canelo. If you load up on big shots upstairs vs Prime RJJ, he's going to make you miss, but if Canelo targets the body early, that's easier for him to hit, then get Roy worrying about body shots and then go upstairs. Roy's never really had to deal with a brutal body puncher like Canelo who isn't just one dimensional. I mean there's been great body punchers from the past, but none of the body punchers Roy ever fought had the overall speed, elusiveness, upper body movement, power and overall skillset that Canelo possessess.

 

Have you seen 168 RJJ? (not ten seconds of highlights)

 

He was amazing at 168, but how many fighters really chin checked him at that weight?

 

No way, Canelo took GGG`s best shots, Jones couldn`t face plant Harding.

 

You’re only looking from one perspective.

Again, Canelo has simply never seen anything like a prime Roy Jones.

How many guys as he fought that were fast, with great movement?

Floyd and Lara when he was younger, and recently BJS.

Yet you’re saying he could have timed Roy and stopped him.

I respect your opinion but it isn’t based on anything concrete.

 

The way you think is utterly bizarre.

Eric Harding?

A very big southpaw at LHW?

And that is relevant how?

 

None, he didn't happen to face a lot of lights-out punchers at the weight, closest would be Lights Out himself (Toney really could hit at 160 and 168lbs) but I'm not sure a prime Toney couldn't easily replicate Canelo's feats of stopping Fielding, Yıldırım, or BJS (a poor man's version of Toney himself, with less power). I'm not sure he could stop Mundo, who afaik has never been down amateur or pro.

The point is, though, it wouldn't likely be Canelo landing a big shot on Roy first. Roy was a whirling dervish in those days, you could barely lay a hand on him - and he was certainly faster and more defensively elusive (straight-up I mean, not even p4p) than Erislandy Lara, who made Canelo appear foolish over twelve. Canelo has a good chin, but we've seen him get hurt plenty of times, enough to suggest he isn't someone that "can't be stopped", and Roy would land absolute bombs from thoes insane angles.

 

When we discussed this years ago, I think it was a different comparison. Back a couple of years ago, I would have been much more confident in favoring RJJ against Canelo. But I think we need to take into account how much better Canelo has gotten in the last several yaers, he's reached a point now where he's much more capable of beating a Prime RJJ than he was even just a few years ago.

And like I said, at 175, I think I'd still have to favor Roy given that he's naturally bigger than Canelo and Canelo is far more effective with faster speed at 168. But at 168, I think Canelo would have been Prime RJJ toughest opponent by a significant margin.

I think I make a fair point about RJJ being chinny, struggling with Griffin the first time, getting knocked down by Lou Del Valle. I know those were scenarios that wouldn't necesarily apply to Canelo, but Canelo's never tasted the canvas like that with a flash knockdown. As great as RJJ was in his prime, he's much more vulnerable to being knocked down than Canelo is. Granted RJJ was unbelievably elusive and hard to hit clean, but when he was tagged with a good shot, he generally went down. Many have said that Prime RJJ's super human like speed only hid the flaws of his style, and when he slowed down after coming down from Heavyweight those flaws were exposed because the speed couldn't hide it anymore.

Canelo is currently fighting with a lot of confidence and sometimes it feels like he is unbeatable. My conclusion is that Canelo vs Prime RJJ at 168 would be a very even fight, with Canelo having more of a chance of putting RJJ down than RJJ would have of putting Canelo down. I think that's a reasonable outlook. As far as who would win a decision, RJJ has a great chance of winning a decision but I can't see him dominating Canelo or winning a decision wide. I think any reasonable outlook on this match at 168 would expect a very close decision if it went the distance. It's truly a dream fight that is fun to think about, because of how dominant both Canelo and RJJ are/were in their respective primes at SMW.