Is Canelo on a serious slide?

[Primo Carnera]

Anything can be manufactured nowadays... including boxing careers.

I would imagine a naturally skeptical person such as yourself would totally understand that idea.

oh definitely, look at some of the guys in the hall of fame. canelo has beaten some good fighters & fought some of the best of his era. a fighter doesn't have to be the greatest ever to have had a very good career

I'll agree that Canelo has had a very good career. But to me, his career has been carefully constructed and carried along since the beginning. Why? Starting with his early record, another example of a "pretty boy" fighter bulging up his W-L record into the 40's with a collection of no-good, over-the-hill, undersized, local bums.

Then the obviously shady decisions by WBC-appointed judges in high profile fights. The footsies he played with Golovkin (when "Fishnets" coined the term "marinating") and the weight... saying he wasn't ready for 160 when he had already gone up to fight JCC Jr. at 170, and everybody and their brother knew Canelo walked around in the 180's. His PED use, for which he got a meaningless slap on the wrist.

His clamoring for a fight against Mayweather, who was #1 p4p at the time, supposedly because he had earned it. THEN, thankfully... Mayweather gave him a boxing lesson in one of the easiest fights he's ever had. His cherry-picking and shameful reaching for trinkets like when he went up to fight Rocky Fielding, probably the WEAKEST champion in any weight division in history... bar none. Also going up to pick off lame zebra Kovalev, who had been exposed to the body by feather-punching Andre Ward.

Through all of this... it's been his fans who have contributed to the Canelo hate that many people in boxing have. They put Canelo on a pedestal from the very start, which immediately turned a bunch of us off. Casuals seem to have forgotten the TRUE Mexican warriors of the past, like Salvador Sanchez, JCC, MAB, Eric Morales, etc.

I've even criticized the way JCC began his career... pretty much in the same fashion as Canelo... bulging his record to the 40's or 50's before ever seeing a credible opponent. But at least JCC later faced the best of his time, without thinking about diva clauses... without having judges bought in his pocket... without marinating fights. The way REAL champions do their shit.

I'm sure I've forgotten many other Canelo examples, but that's pretty much why I've always maintained that his career has been manufactured. And again... knowing how you are pretty much a "show me" kind of guy... it surprised me that you would defend someone like Canelo so much.

I only see TIC’s posts when they are quoted in a conversation. In this instance, I don’t think he has said anything that isn’t right.
At the same time I totally get every single thing Tito says above.
But all the points made are the same for any fighter IN THIS ERA. A Sides , WBC , Padded records, cherry picking titles, etc. Etc. But it’s not just Canelo this applies to. It’s any half decent champion.
I don’t think you’re that far away from each other.
IN THIS ERA, Canelo has had a great career , is he an ATG? Absolutely nowhere near it! Infact it would be an almost laughable suggestion.
You could probably pick over 20, maybe 30 or 40 guys from the past that would beat Canelo at weights where he has won World titles.
But he is in this era and is making the most of it.
I genuinely don’t mean to be condescending, but if younger People like TIC think (and I’m not suggesting he does) that someone like Canelo is anything more than what I’ve just stated, then it would probably be a bit foolish.