Promoter Bob Arum says he’s not counting his veteran fighter Terence Crawford in a title challenge against WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez if they meet in September in a 12-person mega-fight rounds.
Switch Strike Threat
Arum believes Crawford’s (37, 39 KO) ability to change hits will trouble Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KO), just as it did with Errol Spence in their 2023 fight. Errol was outmatched against Crawford, looking slow, exhausted and far from the fighter he had been in 2018.
The fact that Crawford is turning to Canelo probably won’t faze the Mexican star as he has fought many southpaw fighters and never had any problems with them. If Bud becomes left-handed, it will have no impact on the fight except that he will take heavy shots in a different stance.
The real problem Arum doesn’t mention is that Crawford is too old, small and weak to fight at 168. He’s probably hoping to gain 14 pounds and replicate what Floyd Mayweather Jr. did against the then 22-year-old Canelo. in 2013.
If Mayweather and Canelo fought now, the version of Floyd who fought Canelo would be eliminated. Alvarez is now much stronger and more experienced, and he would never accept a weight of 152 pounds. Floyd just threw jabs, one right hand, held and moved all night.
This style wouldn’t work now because Canelo would land the harder shots and be seen as the aggressor, forcing Floyd to run. Crawford will do the same because he is too old and too weak to trade with Canelo. Just so you know, Terence will be 38 in September.
“I wouldn’t count Crawford in any fight because he has a unique talent; he’s a great boxer-puncher and he’s totally ambidextrous,” Bob Arum told Combathype when asked about Terence Crawford’s chances against Canelo Alvarez.
“He drives his opponent crazy because he trains to fight a right-hander, and ends up fighting a left-hander. This is what happened to Errol (when he fought Crawford on June 29, 2023). Spence trained for a right-handed fighter and all he saw was a left-handed fighter.
“I think what Crawford is looking for is Manny Pacquiao versus Oscar De La Hoya,” Arum said of the kind of upset situation Terence is looking for against Canelo.
No catch weight
The situation was different when Oscar De La Hoya fought Manny Pacquiao in 2008. De La Hoya was a failed part-time fighter at that point in his career, and he was fighting at junior middleweight. He agreed to face Pacquiao at a catchweight of 145, then lost too much weight while dieting. He looked terrible, put on weight, and it showed in the fight.
Canelo wouldn’t diet or lose weight for Crawford, and he’s not a part-time fighter like Oscar was. If Crawford thinks Canelo will be another De La Hoya, he’s wrong. They are two different people.
Canelo stays in shape and he won’t agree to give Bud a weight handicap like De La Hoya did with Pacquiao. Oscar should never have done this because he was the “Golden Boy”, the superstar of this fight, and he could have insisted that Pacquiao move up to 154 to fight him. It was a strange situation in which De La Hoya went out of his way to give Manny a better chance to level the playing field. In doing so, he weakened himself and lost.
