Canizales would have been the one to face Barrera in 1996 had he won against Junior Jones (who would also end up upsetting Barrera and hand him his first defeat) but lost via split decision. If he was given the decision against Jones and fought Barrera would he have stood a chance, especially since he was a bit past his prime at this time? Could be be able to beat Barrera twice like Jones did? Part of me would have liked to have seen Canizales against a young Barrera. That would have been very action packed and highly skilled fight.
Makes you wonder how things would have gone had Canizales got the decision over Jones and fought Barrera. Barrera would have definitely beaten Canizales and I think his career would have been a bit different as he would not have back-to-back losses. Although I do wonder if his boxing skills would have still improved. His more reserved boxing style led him to outclassing Hamed.
Jones beat Canizales very clearly. Canizales vs Vasquez is the fight that could have gone either way. I had Vasquez edging it 7-5, but it could have also been 6-6 or 7-5 Canizales.
Jones was a bad style for Canizales, especially since his foot speed had diminished so much. I had it 9-3 for Jones iirc.
Junior Jones beat Canizales no doubt about it, there was no controversy about it other than it being a SD. Still it would have been interesting to see a young MAB taking on the older Canizales, would have been a nice passing of the torch fight similar to Morales vs Zaragoza.
MAB would have given OC a beating at that stage. Now, if the Canizales that beat Hardy in the rematch moved up to 122, and was just as effective, THEN we have a matchup that's highly dangerous for Barrera. Canizales was a better talent than Barrera, and imo he peaked higher. MAB's career was better because he dared to be great, and Canizales didn't at all. Sad because his style was like a hybrid of Napoles and Gomez. His resume.... not at all like Napoles and Gomez
