Canelo's greater and by a clear margin. I think Hamed's peak was better. Canelo's never been a dominant fighter, not even against solid opposition. Hamed couldn't beat a great fighter, but he blew out a slew of solid fighters. If they were the same natural weight, I'd take the 95-97 Hamed to stop Canelo. On paper, Canelo's style would be made for Naz.
Hamed was More Naturally TALENTED, But Canelo was the Better and Greater Fighter...And REED Loooooooooooves Prince Hamed.... REED
Titles at two weight classes 4 lbs apart. Or titles at four weight classes 21 lbs apart? Yeah, I'm going to go with Canelo.
I don't think it was even worth it to ask about greater. It's easily the Ginger. Better is a more arguable question. Now, one could argue that Canelo at one point was top P4P, and Naz never was, but the 90s was OBJECTIVELY a much deeper era than this one. Canelo would never sniff top 5 P4P in the era of Jones, Whitaker, Toney, Trinidad, Holy, Lewis, DLH, lightweight Mosley, Barrera, Morales, Bowe, ect. The sport just doesn't have that type of depth anymore. Josh Taylor sucks and even he made the top 10 P4P a few years ago. The standard Canelo's held to is lower.
Hamed ran away after his first loss.....he'd have also been ktfo if he ever fought as high as 135 whereas Canelo - cherry picking or not- did go quite far north to fight guys. If Hamed fought Tszyu at 140 he'd have been hospitalised badly.
Canelo achieved more and has more longevity. Hamed had more talent and was more dynamic but he didn’t have the discipline nor the management to better pick his opposition to the degree Canelo is now.
Yeah Hamed was physically more dynamic than Canelo. That's it. Canelo did more with what he had. It's worth remembering that Canelo improved after his loss to Floyd, and Hamed regressed badly after the MAB fight and might arguably have been in regression by then .
Canelo is obviously greater historically. I’m not so sure about Hamed being better in his prime. I mean maybe he was more talented, especially with his freakish power, but was he better overall? Canelo had very good skills and had much better balance and defense than Hamed. I thought those weaknesses of Hamed were still there during his peak years (Medina fight for example). Clenelo fought on even terms in the rematch with an aging GGG. I don’t see Hamed performing that well. To go farther than that, does he even make top 5 at 160 in the early 90s? I had this conversation at a fight party a little while back (Joshua-Ngannou). A couple of guys there do know their history, and I talk a lot about it with them. They were saying Canelo is great but would lose to the greats like Monzon and Hagler. I said I wouldn’t even pick Canelo over Toney, Nunn, or Kalambay. They were kind of iffy about that.
Canelo would win maybe 3 rounds COMBINED between Kalambay, Toney, and Nunn. He's a manufactured great.
Agree with those who say Hamed was more naturally gifted, but Canelo is greater by a large margin. I say this as a huge Naz fan, and somebody who is quite indifferent to Canelo.
I might be remembering wrong, but I think Hamed only held titles at featherweight. He was being pushed towards a title shot at super bantam after winning the European title against Belcastro but then the Robinson fight became available and he just stuck at 126 from there on.
Yes you're right. I am still laughing at his team's hilarious claim that they planned for Haveeb to win titles all the way through 154. They even posted a hit list on there with such ridiculous descriptions of how he'd easily beat Floyd Mayweather among others. Riath knew his brother's limitations after he was dropped three times by KK and that's why they jumped through hoops to avoid Juan Manuel Marquez for years.
In the realm of boxing greatness, Canelo's prowess shines bright, even against the backdrop of the '90s, where legends like Lewis, Jones and Holyfield roamed the ring. Canelo is just not a top tier great. There are levels.
