Three fighters, two that gave Canelo trouble and one who has a tricky style. I'm talking about present form, BJS as you expect him to look Saturday, Lara as he looked last weekend with the KO1, and GGG as he is today.
My theory is you need power to compete with Canelo below LHW. Low volume, low power won't get it done, not the way anyone active does it anyway.
Saunders doesn't have GGG power, but he does have more power and punching technique than Lara or many of the fighters Canelo has fought besides GGG. The combination of speed and power and awkwardness is something Canelo has never experienced before. I feel like Canelo could walk into some big shots if Billy times him right and loads up.
Golovkin, mainly because I believe Saunder's style will not win judges over (we've already seen that Canelo wins rounds where he literally does nothing). That being said, I still think Saunders is going to make Canelo look very bad and is going to expose what a lot of us have said, that Canelo still has the same exact deficiencies he's always had against certain styles.
I call BS - Show me some examples of rounds that Canelo won where he's done "literally" nothing? I think I know what you're referring to, in that some judges gave him rounds while he was being outlanded, due to him landing the bigger more eye catching punches. But no need to exaggerate and say he won rounds while doing "literally" nothing, that's obviously a ridiculous claim. One thing to keep in mind is that Saunders averages less than 40 punches thrown per round, which ranks him as one of the least active punchers in boxing according to compubox. This suggests that it is unlikely that Saunders is going to outland Canelo, and we know that several fighters have lost to Canelo while outlanding him in total punches according to Compubox. Given the 22 foot inner ring, Billy's foot speed, and the fact that Canelo is a slow starter, this all may add up to what could turn out to be an extremely low output chess match / track meet. And maybe one way to beat Canelo is rather than try to outland him, as others have tried to do and failed, is to do everything possible to be elusive and not let Canelo hit you and try to surprise Canelo with quality shots coming in, after staying on the outside for extended periods, which I'm guessing is what Billy may try to do. Well I think Saunders possess the ability to win this by keeping Canelo at range and landing shots in well-timed in-n-out bursts, similar to how Khan was winning rounds early vs Canelo. He's not going to beat Canelo by getting into a slug fest, that's for sure. The problem for Billy is that Canelo is so good at slipping punches, Billy really needs to and get that jab landing flush and hard, rather than just flicking it out there with nothing on it, Canelo also is a very good counter puncher and a good body puncher. So if Billy overextends trying to come in to land a shot, that body will be wide open for a counter punch. All it takes is one hard rock solid body shot to hurt Billy and slow him down. But we will see, it should be a fascinating encounter, and I go back in forth in my mind as to who is gonna win. I can't wait for tomorrow night, it should be a great match.
Grandpa Golovkin still has the best chance of spanking Canelo (again). That's because he'd actually fight Canelo and outwork him. Saunders has some sweet moves but he's low output by comparison and there's no low output guy that's going to beat boxing's golden goose by throwing less punches than him. Saunders' best chance is to make Canelo look silly, to antagonize him and catch him with clean flashy shots and supporting mockery. So that even if Canelo gets the decision he looks stupid in doing so.
Sadly he had been robbed on tickets seller's judges cards and businessman's Canelo fans are just casual fans who are thinking that they are something special and clen does care that these his cash cows does exists in this world.
