Promoter Bob Arum says he is not ruling out his former fighter Terence Crawford in a title challenge against WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez if they meet in a 12-round mega-fight this September.
Switch-hit threat
Arum feels that Crawford’s (37-year-old, 39 KOs) ability to change strikes will trouble Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) just like Errol Spence did when they fought in 2023. looks slow, drained, and nowhere near the fighter he was in 2018.
Crawford’s spinning southpaw on Canelo is unlikely to faze the Mexican star, as he has fought plenty of left-handed fighters and never had a problem with them. If Bud turns southpaw, it won’t affect the fight, except that he takes heavy shots while in a different stance.
The real problem that Arum doesn’t mention is that Crawford is too old, small and weak to fight at 168. He probably hopes to gain 14 pounds and duplicate what Floyd Mayweather Jr. did against a then 22-year-old Canelo in 2013.
If Mayweather and Canelo fought now, the version of Floyd that Canelo fought would be knocked out. Alvarez is now much stronger and more experienced, and he will never agree to a catch weight of 152 lbs. Floyd just threw jabs, left right hands, held and moved all night.
That 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 weak to stand and trade with Canelo. Just so you know, Terence turns 38 in September.
“I wouldn’t count Crawford out in any fight because he has a unique talent; he’s a great boxer-puncher, and he’s completely double-edged,” Bob Arum said. Battle hype when asked about Terence Crawford’s chances against Canelo Alvarez.
“He drives his opponent crazy because they train to fight a right-handed fighter, and end up fighting a southpaw. That’s 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 southpaw fighter.
“I think what Crawford is looking for is Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar De La Hoya,” Arum said of what kind of upset situation Terence is looking for against Canelo.
No catch weight
It was a different situation when Oscar De La Hoya fought Manny Pacquiao in 2008. De La Hoya was a washed-up part-time fighter by that point in his career, fighting at junior middleweight. He agreed to fight Pacquiao at a catch weight of 145 and then lost too much weight by dieting. He looked terrible, made weight, and it showed in the fight.
Canelo wouldn’t be dieting or coming down in weight for Crawford, and he’s not an over-the-hill, part-time fighter like Oscar was. If Crawford thinks that Canelo will be another De La Hoya, he is fooling himself. They are two different people.
Canelo remains in shape, and he’s not going to agree to give Bud a catchweight handicap like De La Hoya did with Pacquiao. Oscar never should have done that because he was the ‘Golden Boy’, the superstar in that fight, and he could have insisted that Pacquiao move up to 154 to fight him. It was a weird situation where De La Hoya bent over backwards to give Manny a better chance to level the playing field. In doing so, he weakened and lost himself.
