TOP-3 best and worst Canelo opponents over the last 10 years

Since late 2011 Canelo has fought 20+ times in 4 weight divisions. What are his best opponents and 3 weakest during these 10 years? Let's take a look.

3 best opponents:
- Floyd. Elite. Multiple divisions champion.
- GGG. Elite. Long-time MW world champion.
- Cotto. Elite. Multiple divisions champion, though clearly past his best.

Note: I didn't include in top-3 Kovalev (way past his best), Lara (good, but not great), Jackobs (same reason) and his recent 3 beltholders at SMW.

3 worst opponents:
- Rocky Fielding. British level, non-skilled. KO'd by Canelo's future victim Callum Smith in 1 round.
- Avni Yildirim. Fringe contender. Best win - controversial win over Lolenga Mock, a gatekeeper in his late 40s.
- JCC Jr. An absolutely trash opponent. Zero speed, no skills and work ethic. Was recently dominated by totally shot former MMA fighter in his late 40s.

Name your lists if they are different.

Let's discuss

 

Good list. I’d like to squeeze Angulo in there because he was basically a breathing heavy bag but at least he tried a little harder than Chavez.

 

Best:
(1) Floyd Mayweather - unarguably top 3 fighter of the 21st century
(2) Gennady Golovkin - unarguably top 10 middleweight of all time
(3) Sergey Kovalev - massively underrated win for Canelo

Worst:
(1) Avni Yildrim
(2) Rocky Fielding
(3) Julio Chavez

 

Best: GGG, Floyd, Lara. Worst: Chavez Jr., Fielding, Khan. I put Khan because even guys like Angulo, Yildrim etc would KO glass chin Khan as soon as they landed a decent shot.

 

Who cares GGG has had way more.

 

I'd suggest that Cotto suffers from much the same timing/past-it issues as Kovalev.

The big question mark on Canelo's resume is he has some great names but the timing and circumstances of when he fought them is hugely deck-stacked, aged-out, past-prime, short-camped & bias-judged suspect.

Mosely, Golovkin, BJS all have this to an extent.

 

Funny how canelo lost 3 fights to his best two opponents.

Ggg beat him twice. Just accept it.

Canelo is a good fighter, but ggg and Floyd are just better

 

Floyd
GGG
And I will go with either Smith or BJS as third as Cotto and Kovalev were past their prime.

 

I for the most part agree, except Cotto. He was in name only one of his best. Despite the title, Cotto was well past his prime and the luster was off (I'm not being biased, Cotto is one of my favorite fighters). I'd say Lara (who he fought to a standstill, and was clearly his equal at the time) or Trout (undefeated, at the time the dark horse of the division, and had literally beat Cotto in his previous fight at a weight Cotto was still arguably prime at) was the 3rd best win.

No issues with anyone else.

 

Jacobs was top 3 as Cotto was past his prime

 

Good list although I could argue Lara being in the top three in place of Cotto because of how difficult of an opponent he is. He was a tougher fight than Cotto for sure due to his excellent footwork and amateur pedigree and Cotto had slipped at that point. Lara stylistically is tough for anyone.

 

What's crazy is he got beat my at least 2/3 of those names LOL

 

I think Lara was a better opponent than Cotto at the time that fought.

 

Blown up Khan fighting him at middle weight should get honorable mention.