Canelo really looked lost the whole fight
i don't know about that. he was young, but 42-0. you can't really say a world champ is inexperienced after winning 42 straight fights, with 30 KOs. and alvarez didn't lose because the lights were too bright, either. he was fighting his ass off, floyd was just a lot slicker.
Ali also lost years off his prime when he was banned from boxing. He fought Frazier coming off that ban. Frazier himself was an all time great so no shame in that. Norton fights were what they were, sometimes styles can give a fighter problems, look at the Manny v Marquez Fights. Amir Khan dispatched Maidana yet Floyd struggled with him in 2 fights...I would say Floyd is up there but I would rate Ali and a number of other fighters above him in all honesty. It’s not all about being undefeated.
I honestly think Floyd lost to Castillo and Maidana in the first fights he had with both. Watch them again and see what you think. I think Floyd is one of the greats and in his prime was mesmerising to watch, I just don’t think he is the greatest.
I just remember at the time plenty of people thought that Canelo was a great fighter but too inexperienced to beat Mayweather. His best win so far was Austin Trout. Does that prepare you to fight the P4P best in the game? Most people didn't think so. And the question is has Canelo improved since that defeat, I'm sure the majority of people would agree that he has. I'm pretty certain the prevailing reasoning was that Canelo was too young for Mayweather. And threads like this one show that.
True but it's not really fair to compare Ali at the time he fought Spinks to Floyd when he fought Canelo as Ali was showing the early symptoms of Parkinson's disease at that time. Mayweather had a longer career at the top no doubt but I think Ali had the more impressive fights.
Yeah they were roughly the same age but they were worlds apart in terms of how much damage they'd both taken in their respective careers. Floyd was probably the best defensive boxer arguably ever. Ali used to absorb hellacious punishments in some of his fights. Apparently Ali's speech had slowed down by 16% after the Shavers fight where he got hit a lot which I think was just before the Spinks fight, indicating the beginnings of Parkinson's disease. If the argument was who had the longer successful career then that clearly goes to Floyd by some margin.
Ali had a shorter peak and it was interrupted. But what makes Ali for me so special is he won matches that he supposedly had no hope of winning i.e. Foreman and Liston. Floyd never had a fight where he was anywhere near that big an underdog. I think he was an underdog vs. Corrales but not by much. I think conquering people that you are not supposed to beat makes a fighter great for me. Floyd never seemed to have to work that hard to get the win.
floyd aint no puglist hes a marathon runner
Yeah perhaps you are right. Floyd was just so good that he never really faced a really difficult challenge. That's why I'd have liked him take a crazy bout like against GGG. I think he'd have still won it though even though I think he'd have been a big underdog. But what was Floyds limit that he couldn't overcome with his brilliance? I don't think we ever got to find out.
