A rich in ruins: how a loss of an inactive Crawford crushed the legacy of Canelo Alvarez

Teddy Atlas says the legacy of Canelo Alvarez was “dived” last week by his defeat against Terence Crawford. He mentions that the only way Canelo (63-3-2, 39 COs) can continue his career is to “fix the wrong” by avenging the defeat against Crawford, if possible.

Of course, defeat Alvarez’s legacy hurts. Losing to a parent, inactive fighter who started his career at Lightweight has a big dive in Canelo’s popularity with fans. What is even more telling is that Crawford came to Israil Madrimov against Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024, in a fight that many fans felt that he deserved to lose.

The combination of all the things indicates a few things:

1. Canelo is a faded fighter: I believe that Alvarez has been able to disguise his faded form for the past three years by fighting lower levels, Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga and John Ryder.
2. Bud is just as defeated: The way Crawford fought against Canelo would probably lose to many, if not all of the Top 168-LB contenders, including the fighters at 160 and 154. I don’t think Crawford can be the best Christian Mbilli, Osleys Iglesias, Lester Martinez or Hamzah Sheeraz on 168. He is too weak, small, and not in the ground. He will have to do this to beat those fighters.

A rematch not worth the money

Even if Canelo wanted, would Turki Alalshikh be prepared to finance a re -broadcast? Financially, it would not be worth it because of the large wallets that Alvarez and Crawford (42-0, 31 COs) would probably expect to receive.

Performance is also not worthy of the money they earned last time. You can’t say that Crawford produced a $ 50 million performance last week, and Canelo was nowhere near the level of a fighter who paid $ 150 million. Turki would be better to go in a different direction, rather than wasting money on a second Canelo-Crawford battle that does not fulfill the hype.

Crawford’s “sink or swim” future

Fans would be more interested in going on if their fighters fight where they would be considered the underdogs. Throw crawford into a sinking or swimming situation against one of these fighters:

• David benavidez
• Dmitri BIVOL
• Christian Milli
• Artur Betterbiev

Putting Crawford into one of the three would be like feeding a packet of hungry wolves. I see a scenario where the guys would have their ears pinned, and Crawford relentlessly attacked and chased him in probably one -sided fighting around the ring. It would be the survival of the most fit. The weak are collected by the strong.

There would be so much drama and excitement in those fights, with fans wondering if Crawford would get it or not.

New challenges for an underdog

With Canelo, he would probably be the underdog at this point, simply against Hamzah Sheeraz. As bad as he looked against Crawford, I could see that the odds Makeraz made the favorite. Another option for Canelo would be to fit him against the winner of the Rematch between Chris Eubank Jr. And Conor Benn.

You cannot plug in with one of the top five contenders on 168 and expect him to get out of battle with his hand lifted after my estimate. I think it won’t end well for Alvarez if you match him against the top guys, the one for whatever reason, he has been chosen not to fight over the past year.

“He lost against a man (Terence Crawford) who won his first time at 135 and was inactive. It impedes his legacy, ‘says Podhost Teddy Atlas on his channelTalk about Canelo Alvarez’s loss of Terence Crawford a week ago.

The defeat exposed Canelo and put a spotlight on him and his career. This has reinforced the argument that some fans have those alvarez was never as good as he was made. He was a fighter who made controversial decisions in his fighting against Gennadiy Golovkin (1 & 2) and Erislandy Lara.

Crawford did the minimum to earn his decision and was nowhere as impressive as Lara and GGG were in their fights. The difference is that the set of judges Terence gave the decision, but not the fighters.

“Does he want to be wrong? Is he concerned about his legacy? ‘ said Atlas and asked if Canelo with Crawford would offend the re -broadcast. “He falls a notch of what we had him. The only reason for Canelo to continue is if he doesn’t want to go out that way. He wants to undo what was done in the Crawford match. ‘

It wouldn’t be the first time that Canelo has chosen not to regain an opponent. After losing against these two fighters, he never fought them to avenge his defeats:

• Dmitri BIVOL (May 2022)
• Floyd Mayweather Jr. (September 2013)

Was Lara more impressive than Crawford?

Some fans will add Erislandy Lara to the list of fighters who beat Canelo on July 12, 2014 of their controversial battle. The judges gave Canelo a 12-round decision, but many people, including myself, believed that Erislandy was the winner.

A hit-and-run-style style

The way Lara acted in that fight was probably better than how Terence Crawford made in his unanimous 12 -round decision across Canelo. In my opinion, Lara looked more impressive than a prime Canelo than Crawford, which usually ran around the ring and won rounds using a hit-and-run style.

In contrast, Erislandy stood in front of Canelo and repeatedly hampered him, blocked and pulled his return fire. The Cuban Lara showed no fear and did not use the running of Alvarez, further distinguishing his actions from how Crawford fought. These two battles show how subjective points can be.