I’d still take Roy. Canelo is too methodical and conservative with his output to put Roy in real trouble. Roy probably won’t stop him but he’d have a fairly easy time beating him.
Roy still wins. Tarver presented stylistic issues for a faded Roy that he wouldn't see with Canelo. Spurt fighting against Roy is NEVER gonna bring success.
As said above, Canelo doesn’t present the stylistic issues that Tarver does. Tarver is about half a foot taller, has a longer reach, is a natural LHW, and has that huge left hand. Canelo doesn’t present those issues. Roy would control the tempo and win a clear and somewhat dull UD.
Target troubled Jones because he was an intelligent southpaw, who had a huge advantage in 'length', and was a brilliant ring general. He got into Jones' rhythm and was able to disrupt it. Even then, he still lost very clearly IMO. Jones' speed and power still made him cower away in the centre of the ring. He opened up a lot more as Roy backed up to the ropes. In the second fight, the adjustment Tarver made was to go from trying to break Roy's rhythm, to trying to catch and counter Jones' right. Tarver, while not one of the best light-heavyweights ever, still had a big punch, a granite chin, and was very intelligent. He was also a lot 'tougher' than Canelo, in the sense that he was harder to dissuade. Canelo has none of the tools to do what Tarver did against Jones. The weird space he was rendered in against Bivol where he was spending too much time waiting on Bivol, but was hesitant to lead because he was ineffective would be times twenty against Jones. To beat Jones you virtually had to throw caution to the wind. You needed a granite chin, a high workrate and to be very strong. While Canelo does have a great chin and is very strong, his workrate isn't gonna bother Jones and he's never gonna attack with enough reckless abandon to consistently be in position to land on Jones. Jones on the other hand would be able to waltz in there and have a good time without really having to shift gears. It'd be like the Toney fight, although I'd actually say a stoppage is quite likely. If I'm honest, I wouldn't be all too surprised if Canelo beat Tarver. It took all the guile of Glen Johnson to do it, and Canelo's style is pretty much a highly sophisticated version of Glen's.
