Benavidez Sr. Criticize Crawford’s ‘safe’ style

Coach Jose Benavidez Sr. says Terence Crawford is not an “exciting fighter” and reminds him of Shakur Stevenson with his approach to fighting. He feels that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) just focuses on winning rounds and doesn’t go out of his way to entertain the fans like his son David Benavidez does.

Crawford has always been a boxer who focused on movement and counterpunching. His style held him back from gaining a large fan base until late in his career when he fought Errol Spence last year.

Crawford’s Focus Canelo at 168

Jose Sr. says she Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) will knock Crawford out in “three or four” rounds if Bud moves up to 168 to face him. Crawford wants to move up to 168, but only for an immediate title shot against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in what he says would be a “legacy” fight.

Crawford wouldn’t stand a chance against David Benavidez, David Morrell, Osleys Iglesias or Christian Mbilli at 168. He is not young, strong or big enough to compete with them. Crawford wants the Canelo to fight at 168 and no one else.

Terence has no interest in creating a legacy fighting anyone but Canelo at 168, and he doesn’t feel he needs to earn the title shot given what he’s done at 135, 140, 147 and 154 during his 16-year career did. career.

Jose Sr. ‘s view that Crawford is a dull fighter may have to do with his recent debut at 154 against WBA champion Israil Madrimov on August 3. Crawford mostly boxed Madrimov in a chess match, taking no chances to entertain the fans.

“I’m not even going to compare David to Terence Crawford. David is an exciting fighter. David comes throwing punches and dares a lot. He’s coming to put on a show,” coach Jose Benavidez Sr. said. said on the Thaboxingvoice YouTube channel, comparing David Benavidez to Terence Crawford.

Benavidez is a very different fighter than Crawford, who focuses more on scoring knockouts with his combination punches. Crawford has a lot of knockouts, but it was mostly against lesser fighters who were small, old and not of high caliber. We saw when Crawford came in on Madrimov, he couldn’t do anything with him and just boxed a boring 12 round decision.

“Terence Crawford is a very good fighter. He always plays safe and wants to win the rounds, but I don’t think he dares. He doesn’t give the people excitement, and he’s going to come and fight,” Jose Sr. said.

Crawford wasn’t taking any chances against Madrimov. When he fought at 147, he was more aggressive, but that was because of the level of his opposition. Crawford has fought guys like Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, David Avanesyan, Jeff Horn, Kell Brook and Amir Khan. He moved up to 154 without a fight against Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

The Shakur Stevenson Equation

“To me, Terence Crawford is like a Shakur Stevenson,” Jose Sr. says. “Pound-for-pound, Terence Crawford is a good fighter, but to me he’s not exciting. He always plays it safe. He wins the rounds, and that’s it. I can’t even compare him to David. David is an exciting fighter and one that people want to see. The last show (against Oleksandr Gvozdyk) he came in injured, but I’m proud of what he did.”

Shakur seems to have learned his trade by watching Crawford fight and has modeled his style after his. He takes it a step further with his defensive style, but it is very similar to Crawford’s. That’s one of the reasons why Shakur didn’t become popular—fans don’t like boxers.

“Three or four. Maybe it’s like a Boo Boo (Andrade) thing,” Benavidez Sr. said. said when asked how long Crawford would last against David Benavidez.