More Skilled: Canto or Napoles?

Miguel Canto or José Napoles?

2 certified ATGs, two top P4P talents and imo 2 of the most skilled fighters ever imo. Both are excellent with being both the best and greatest from their countries.
But who's more skilled?

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For me it's Canto, and the breakdown I wrote on why is too long to put into the thread, but I'll put it into several posts.

Edit - Poll added. Happy New Year everyone. May God bless you in 2020.

 

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- His offence was buttery, and was much better, and more prevalent than Canto's, as it should be given the style difference. Napoles's angling, shifting footwork pressured his opponents to retreating. It also cut off the ring nicely and set up his jab well. He had a tendancy to fight with his back foot unpinned, leaning on his left leg. This let him move well laterally or squared him up to use his left hand well should he have chose to, the weakness it presented is that he couldn't get proper leverage on a cross. He'd shift fully into his punches whilst squared up but also had a leaping left hook he'd use to follow up on guys with from a crouch. He was textbook at cutting off the ring and his small steps and shuffles positioned him to land his punches and set up his crazy angles. He also stood in a wide stance in the centre of the ring.

As said, he'd pressure people on the ropes and here, he'd get full power on his wide variety of shots, shifting his weight with each punch whilst throwing combinations and building wicked, scythe like power in a Sugar Ray Robinson-esque way. He was also a versatile offensive fighter, using creative methods to land power punches as well as feints and head-movement to blend his aggression into a silky smooth, walk forward, stalker style. He did seem to struggle open
His combinations, whilst building power with his feet, he had some creative combos, like a short right hook to the head and then a left to the body, another he used was a left hook and right uppercut. Due to him merging his offence and defence together so well, it gave him lots of opportunities to counter, a few favourites he used often are a bob under a left hook and a counter rightncfoss, or a bob under a right and a counter left hook. He also had a very of the time combos, building power along his body through his hips, shoulders, elbows and wrists, looking like a swing but the arc of his the punch is structured shortens the punch at the elbow and created lots of power.

Mantequilla had a great defence, he'd slip shots by an inch, or a mile, moving forward or backward. It was less refined than Canto's, but just as fluid. Most of it came down to his splendid co-ordination and reflexes with an excellent ability to see the punches as well as having the knowledge to handle any punch thrown at him. He was also crazy smart, managing to impose his style on Griffith, Cokes, Lewis ect ect, and being game enough to try it with Carlos Monzon...

His jab, counters and lateral movement made him quite versatile, he could outbox most top guys at range and pepper then with shots whilst baiting them to lead. However, whilst he could, he rarely did for full fights, he preferred to pressure and attack people.

 

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- Stylistically, he's toxic for guys who have to square up, so he'd make stalkers, brawlers and boxer punches look foolish. As a pure boxer, his natural stylistic weakness is to a high output, skilled swarmer.
Imo, someone like Jimmy Wilde is perfect for him (as a style anyway) imo, whilst guys like Harada and Chang are awful for him.

The Master's offence is hard to class in a single word as it was practically harmless at world level, as he couldn't crack an egg, and it was pretty strictly limited to one hand, yet it was so dynamic and cultured it was a joy to watch.

His key punch was definitely his jab, however it more was more of a tool than a weapon. He'd pop it out consistently and set a pace with it, he'd use it whilst turning to either catch an opponent off guard or not allow them to square up, forcing them to realign their centre of gravity. He'd also use it masterfully to dictate the range. His jab also served as an excellent set up for his next best punch, his lead hook. He'd throw picture perfect left hooks at any range and was imo his main damage output/deterrent, especially when he chained them to the point of the chin and spin off to get one downstairs. Inside, he'd use it equally well and catch people whilst they were open. He could throw them moving backwards or forwards and they seemed to come out of nowhere.

His left hand was also used for more than punching, his feints were a thing of beauty. What Impressed me most about them was that whilst he would pull them off to different levels (which is impressive in its own right) he blended both the arm movement and the head-movement into his defence as a block/parry from the feint and used the level change as a bob and/or other forms of head-movement.

Another major part of his offence was his counters, which were immaculate. Since he had such an advanced defence, he had lots of openings to exploit. The ones he frequently found the mark with was his counter jab, which he'd use to outjab bigger guys, as well as popping them over missed left hooks and his own left hooks which he'd like to snap under or over missed right hands.

Canto was also a technical master inside. His right hand was mostly used for collar ties, under hooks and over hooks, but he'd also pop rapid right uppercuts with it as well. His holding doubled as a defence to the body. He'd sway from fight to left to avoid his opponents own offence and would use the motion to put more oomf into his hooks upstairs and down. And not necessarily in that order.

His punch structure was as good as you could get really. He'd throw minimalist tightly structured lead hooks at long/mid range and threw similarly brilliant hooks upclose. These were short and snappy, and given how quick he was anyway, it made sure that he always got off first when knuckling down. Although scarcely used, he had an exquisitely straight, economic right hand that covered his chin and set up follow ups with his left, he turned into it as perfect as you can get, with absolutely no wasted room.

Canto's feet were easily his best asset technically. When he was throwing his power(less) shots he'd be squared up and set perfectly to get the optimum shift and rotation as well being at a the perfect distance. He'd also be able to throw hard jabs whilst moving due to the way he planted and shifted his weight and the angle he pointed his foot as he threw. He also got good snap on his hooks whilst moving from his pivots. He also used this to blend his defence with offence a little bit more, by adding a bob before he done this and slipping any counters whilst getting a free shot to the body. His positioning was excellent as well, he'd flit in and out of range for a few pot shots then turn off at an angle. He'd also use his feet to take power out of shots he'd block by turning with them, shifting his weight away from it, it also gave some extra leverage on a counter.

Canto's movement was extraordinary, he'd bounce off the balls of his feet and keep his opponents guessing which direction he'd go once he'd go after a pause, he'd keep turning his opponents and have them constantly fighting at his prefered range, despite what most people tried. He often retreated to the ropes though, where he does some of his most impressive and entertaining work imo.

Whilst working off the ropes, momentum was his best friend, he'd fall back onto them for some leverage and then counter or slip a punch, then fall back again to get more momentum and repeat, he'd pepper his opponents all over. Whilst gliding on the ropes, he'd still use his full arsenal of defensive tricks and tactics. He'd pull, parry and block shots whilst searching for fresh angles to lead from whilst simultaneously bouncing off the ropes like an aggressive yo-yo. Once he was cornered, or simply plain bored, he'd do similar tricks to Loma and Pep, by spinning his opponents whilst shuffling around them.

El Maestro had an Einstein level Ring IQ and it was evident. His ability to dictate what his opponents did is an obvious example, as is his tactic which I like to call his "punch radar", and I'm not talking about reacting to punches as they came, I'm talking about his unusual ability to predict where a punch was going and block it before it was thrown! Sometimes (particularly the Park fight) you can see the opponent start a punch then stop it when they see it'll be ineffective.

Another example of his ring IQ is the very same Park fights, where he showed his ability to adjust and apply knowledge in a rematch, he also did this in the Gonzalez series. In the first fight, he'd try and box Park like he would a normal challenger, but was having immense issues with Park's aggressive footwork, workrate and "Korean Stylist Left". He tried to adapt to this, by fighting off the ropes more, which failed, then he adapted again after reverting back to boxing but made subtle changes in his defence. He started countering less and using his elbows more to block punches as well as bending at the waist more. He also started to stiff arm Park more which helped keep him off him. Canto's makeshift solution to Park's left was to jab and with the glove vertical and shoulder roll more. Tbh I didn't really nulify it, but did allow Canto to land more counters without being clipped so often.

In the rematch an old Canto would make the necessary corrections to duke out a draw.

 

His defensive minded trainer Jesus Rivero, also helped him developed his immaculate skills to the point of near perfection and almost certainly helped him adapt with his suggestions in the corner.

Canto was a teeny tiny Wizard. His head-movement was excellent, and he managed to #1, stop himself from moving into punches whilst slipping combinations. #2, merge it with his offence, by hiding his attacks with movement. Another very impressive aspect of Canto's head-movement is how it was perfectly in tune with his arms, he'd bob under a shot and then start to predict the punches pre defending them and once they threw he'd have a counter waiting. Whilst slipping shots, at some point he'd twist at the waist and start parrying off his forearms and elbows and using his gloves to block hooks at range.

Speaking of which! Canto's blocks were picture perfect, his arms were always in position to let shots slide of his elbows, gloves and shoulders.
So whilst possessing some of the slickest
head-movement of all time he often relied on blocking, especially inside. He often slipped punches and stepped inside, then once he had manoeuvred his head out of danger, he'd cross his arms over his mid section and the glove over the chest, to protect himself further he'd turn his back to block punches from one side, effectively cutting someone's offence in half. Given his tendancy to block, and his class, he seriously started to fall back on riding shots out, whilst defending attacks, he'd pretty much be constantly moving his hips right to left to take the thud out of the shots.

Canto's stiff arms were a major part of his defence and would often win entire rounds, and even fights by controlling his opponents head. He'd keep turning them and thus meaning they had to reset themselves, meaning more time for Canto to move and repeat. Canto's stiffarms would also be used whilst he had his back to the ropes and obscure his opponents vision whilst using his triceps and forearms to stifle or block incoming punches. This is basically built his use of the mummy guard, which he used to stop punches before they were thrown and controls the opponent's hands rather than heads and shoulders.

Like most ATG defences, a lot of it came down to reflexes, but Canto's ability to hit and not get hit is among the most technical of all time.

Canto's co-ordination is imo by far his greatest asset (his feet are his best technical asset imo). By co-ordination I'm talking his accuracy, balance, judgement (and management) of range ect. That along with his speed and reflexes made him a force at flowing in and out of range and landing his quick sharp shots. His lovely blend of these attributes amplified his game more than anything imo, as it made him as elusive a target you could find in history. Hitting him clean twice was like trying to catch smoke. As the old timers used to say, "you couldn't hit him with a bag of stones if he was stood in front of you".

I'm generally not including physical attributes but it'd be criminal not to mention things like the pairs balance and speed, along with their reflexes and accuracy but all in all, Napoles being a highly skilled operator who was excellent at his job, imo most of his ability came from physical attributes, not so much skill as Canto. So there we go people, we have a winner! Miguel Canto, and to be honest it's clear imo given how much I had to write about the pair of them.

 

Wow thanks!! I absolutely cannot agree, but thanks!

2017 lol

 

I couldn't ask you to delete this, could I? Just so it fits nicely

 

Uh fine.