Crawford beats a ‘polished’ Canelo worse than Mayweather

Terence Crawford’s assistant coach, Bernie Davis, claims that Crawford is the “polished version” of Canelo Alvarez “worse” than Floyd Mayweather Jr. did many years ago.

The 35-year-old Canelo did not look very “polished” in this expert’s eyes. He looked old, disheveled and tired. This wasn’t the Canelo who fought Gennadiy Golovkin to a stop in their first two fights in 2017 and 2018.

The way Mayweather defeated Canelo was very different from how Crawford did. Floyd stood in the bag and out-boxed and knocked out Canelo.

In contrast, Crawford was on his bike, constantly moving and rarely standing still. There is no comparison between them. Mayweather looked masterful in the video below of his win over Canelo on September 14, 2013.

Davis says Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) abused then-undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (63-3-2, 39 KOs) and “stunned, staggered” him in their fight on September 13, 2025.

Crawford won a close 12-round unanimous decision by scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112. It was close because Canelo landed most of the hard shots in rounds 1 through 8.

Crawford came alive in round 9 with a short salvo of punches. In rounds 10, 11 and 12, Terence’s offense was sporadic in the same way it had been earlier.

Canelo vs. Crawford punch stats

• Canelo Alvarez – 99 of 338 for 29.3%
• Terence Crawford – 115 of 534 for 21.5%

Of the 115 punches Crawford landed, 45 of them were jabs, and 70 were power punches. There weren’t many notable shots landed by Terence in the fight when you removed the punches.

The Mayweather benchmark

Floyd Mayweather defeated a younger, faster and better version of Canelo with a 12-round majority decision on September 14, 2013. At the time, Canelo was 22 and at the top of his game, and looked invincible. Mayweather did an excellent job of disarming Canelo’s offense and outworking him. The scores were 117-111, 116-112 and 114-114.

Mayweather vs Canelo bump stats

• Floyd Mayweather Jr. – 232 of 505 punches for 46% connect rate
• Canelo Alvarez – 117 of 526 for 22%

“We beat the man. We beat him worse than Mayweather, and we’re talking about the polished version,” trainer Bernie Davis said. MillCity Boxingwho claims Terence Crawford did a better job beating 35-year-old Canelo Alvarez than Floyd Mayweather Jr. did when he defeated him when the Mexican star was 23.

It wasn’t a knockdown by Crawford of Canelo. He spent too much time moving and trying not to get hit by Canelo because it was a beating he was taking.

“Canelo didn’t pull any punches. He’s the only undisputed three-division champion we’ve had in the four-belt era,” Bernie said of Crawford. “The guys he beat were undefeated. He pushed him around. He stunned him, staggered him,” Bernie said, going a little overboard with his praise of Crawford.