I don't think so. They all have convincing wins over fellow all-time greats. Barrera has two wins over Morales, Morales has Barrera and Pacquiao, and Marquez has Pacquiao and Barrera (albeit a Barrera past his prime). Furthermore, Marquez arguably has wins over Pacquiao from 126 to 147. And I find that more impressive than a highly controversial draw and a close win over Golovkin, who was not in a prime Pacquiao's class. To top that all, all of them have a long list of solid B-level fighters that most of Canelo's resume is built upon. To his credit, Canelo has a long list of wins (at least for the modern era) over solid B-level historical guys. No disrespect to Canelo. He's a great fighter, but I don't see it.
The problem for Canelo is live opposition. I feel he's switched to cruise control. If (in an alternate universe) Crawford managed to secure and clearly beat Spence - just one fight - he has a simple argument over Saul.
Sure, but he does have the ability make fights happen at a weight he's already visited. If he really wants us "to think Canelo when you talk boxing," then he's going to have start pulling out all the stops. He's going to have to do what we think he won't. And no, he couldn't force Smith to engage, but it inadvertently minimizes the opponent.
It's a fair point and good to put the pressure on because he's certainly not above taking an easy win any means if he can get away with it. But regarding moving way up in weight you can say something similar about JMM (sticking with him because I was a fan and remember his career better), he took on some larger LWs but when he fought at 140/147 it was mostly other former LWs/FWs rather than big WWs thinking of moving up (like Beterbiev is at LHW).
Interesting thread because this week AK and Barak on DAZN were frothing at the mouth, proclaiming Canelo the best Mexican boxer EVER over Chavez Sr, disparaging JCC's record in doing so. Canelo is still fighting. Let's see him unify at 168 and then have some historical battles with equally skilled opponents before we place him in the Mexican HOF.
Honestly, it's not even a given Canelo will be the greatest of this era. If Estrada beats Chocolatito, Rungvisai and Ioka in the next two years, it's arguable he'll retire a greater than Canelo. If he ever somehow beats Inoue, then it's inarguable that he'll retire greater than Canelo.
Oh for sure, I don't think that's gonna happen. I do think if he beats Ioka and Gonzalez. Rungvisai probably beats him again, though.
See that’s what I feel separates the Floyd, Pac and Wlad era from this one. They displayed the difference in levels on more than one occasion. When matched near even with no restrictions Canelo still lacks a clear non-controversial win. Bud Crawford doesn’t even have even match opponent on his resume.
The comparison to Barrera, Morales, Marquez or Pacquiao, do you realize how many losses and bad losses these fighters have? These legends have a long list of losses, multiple KO losses, etc. Canelo has 1 loss to Mayweather by decision with the deck stacked against him like no one of these fighters ever had the deck stacked against them. For all intents and purposes, on a level playing field, Canelo has never come close to being soundly defeated. The GGG fights will be debated forever, they were close, tough fights vs GGG who was an absolute beast. Canelo proved he was the better man both times but even if you don't agree he won, trying to downplay GGG as an opponent is bonkers. So now defeating GGG in a close competitive match isn't enough? Now he's supposed to have dominated GGG or else it can't be compared to the likes of quality wins of Barrera, Morales, Marquez or Pacquiao? Do you realize that GGG was the most dominant feared KO artist Middleweight in decades. Canelo beat that guy, I don't care how he did it, I don't care if he was in his mid-30s when it happened, that's an incredible accomplishment. We seen Froch in his mid-30s destroy George Groves twice who was the much younger man. Barrera's win over Naz, Naz was out of shape going into that training camp, he was drained to the gills, sitting in a sauna all fight week trying to lose lbs. Prime Naz destroys Barrera. Pacquiao just beat a prime undefeated Keith 1Time Thurman in his 40s. Canelo's wars with GGG are equally if not more impressive to any of the wars between Morales, Marquez and Pacquiao. Canelo vs GGG, like Marquez vs Pacquiao, could fight a million times and it will always be close and competitive. Now you can argue that since fighting GGG, Canelo hasn't had a top opponent to test himself against. But now Saunders is stepping up, and if Alvarez wins, which is a big if, Plant looks to be in line for September. That's two undefeated Champs so one way or another, all these questions about Canelo and his historical ranking should be answered in a matter of months.
