Terence “Bud” Crawford (41-0, 31 food) tries to do what no other male boxer did, which is an undisputed champion of three divisions. To do this, he must defeat the ruling undisputed super-middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 COs), which has never been defeated at Super Middlevig, with a record of 11-0 in the division.
Crawford essentially rises three weight divisions to fight Canelo. He did make a small pit stop on his way to Super Middligt by fighting in Israil Madrimov in August for the Junior Middleweight WBA (World) and WBO (interim) titles. It’s been a little over a year since that fight; Crawford had time to prepare and build his body to the 168-pound super-middleweight limit.
The biggest question is that Crawford can defeat Saul at this weight? The version of Crawford of 147 pounds of Crawford has all dominated and defeated for the undisputed welterweight crown will not be the one walking in the ring against Canelo. We will see a version of 168 pounds of Crawford, which will be bigger and stronger. How much of his speed and agility will he lose because of the extra weight? In his fight against Madrimov, he did not look as dominant as with Welterweight. The fight was much closer than much expected.
Crawford exceeded Madrimov in 7 rounds, but in 4 of the rounds the difference was only by a single punch. Israil has definitely done a good job – Crawford’s pushing legs, catching, catching and slipping. Offensive, Crawford struggled at times and only ended up 17.9 percent of his jabs. Madrimov threw him rhythm of his ongoing movement and excessive exposition of the rhythm.
An opponent who had a limited success and achieved a knockout that was decided to a slip against Crawford was Egidijus “Mean Machine” Cavaliauskas. He has so far landed the most bumps against Crawford at 118 total strokes at a 30.2 percent connection rate, which is comparable to Madrimov’s 30.5 percent.
Although Kavaliauskas lost the match with technical knockout in the ninth round, it is his success in the first six rounds that indicate possible defects in Crawford’s play. Similar to Madrimov, Kavaliauskas had an upper body movement, along with the Finting that Crawford caused problems early. Average machine exceeded Bud 78 to 65 in the first six rounds and scored the observed Knockdown in the third with a hard right. Terence showed defensive weaknesses; He is susceptible to the right while in the Southpaw attitude. Both Madrimov and Cavaliaus box landed several hard rights while in this position. Bud must tighten his defense against Canelo if he plans to survive the match, as one of his best bumps is the upper hand.
Will Crawford choose to fight in the Southpaw or Orthodox attitude? If he has the ability to do both, he will give a tactical benefit if he does it strategically. However, one thing he can’t do against Canelo is to do as against Madrimov or Cavaliauskas, which stays in the bag for long periods; It can be expensive if he does. Former undisputed junior welterweight champion Jermell Charlo finds himself on the outside in a loss effort. His production was anemic and landed only 71 strokes in the match. Similar to Crawford, Charlo went up in weight for battle, but Canelo’s power turned out too much. While Charlo boxed on the outside for survival, he limited the exchanges and his exposure. Crawford promised to fight and try to win by exchanging alvarez.
It is a well -known fact that Canelo’s biggest weakness is his heavy legs, while struggling against mobile and agile boxers. Is the version of 168 pounds of Bud Agile and elusive enough to cause Saul problems? He may not be so, especially if he plans to deal with Canelo. He must use tactically in-and-out movement, but must do so in a way that does not reduce his production as Charlo did. To surpass Canelo, he must also exceed, which means he has to do enough offensive to make it happen, which is no easy task. He can’t just do the minimum and expect to win. Although Canelo is not a volume puncher, it is effective and accurate with the push he does, with a total connect percentage of 36.1 percent, which is fifth in the sport. For as great as Crawford can definitely be, he will eventually be hit by Canelo; How well he can record his bumps will dictate the game. If the push proves too much for Bud, he can box himself more on the outside than he wants, for his survival.
Alvarez fought like Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev and Dmitry Biblical. He could take their best blows. Canelo has proven to have a granite kin; He has never been beaten in his professional career. Crawford’s strength is very unlikely to affect Canelo to the point where it prevents him from chasing him through the ring. Canelo has yet to be phased by the bumps of an opponent. Terence is a wonderful boxer, but at Super Middlewht, will he be able to execute and execute his game plan as he did at Welterweight?
If his fight against Madrimov is an indication of his ability to act against stronger punchers, we can see a less effective button that is on a series of box to minimize the damage he does. Canelo has to test Terence on this weight and do so by attacking his body and breaking his guard by aiming for his arms as he did against Callum Smith, who sustained a left Bicep injury because he was repeatedly hit by Alvarez’s blows. If Canelo is the bigger fighter in the strength of the push, he must be the bully and use his power to break down Crawford and punish him. Bud is definitely combated, and he never has to withdraw offensive. If he chooses stubbornly to exchange when he simply has to be defensive, it could be his downfall. His margin for mistakes in this game is exceptionally low, as any mistake can cost him expensive.
Last updated on 08/21/2025
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