Crawford’s Canelo Dream: Too old, too small, too late for a real challenge?

Tim Bradley says Terence Crawford will be considered the ‘Best Fighter on Planet Earth’ if he wins against Canelo Alvarez on September 13 in their potential collision in the Riyadh season.

Crawford (41-0, 31 CO’s) will move two divisions to fight in a weight class he has never fought before and will probably never fight, win or lose again, against Canelo. If Terence were to win, you still wouldn’t be able to say he was better than David Benavidez, David Morrell or Diego Pacheco.

Too small, too late?

There is too much size, power and youth of the guys for an outdated switch like Crawford to defeat them. Beating Canelo would only prove that Terence is better than the 34-year-old Mexican star, but not that he is the ‘best’ on the planet. However, the chances of Crawford are slim because he is a smaller, weaker version of Jermell Charlo.

When Jermell moved to 168 in 2023 to fight against Canelo, many fans believed he would be too good for the Mexican star. But as soon as he feels Canelo’s power, he did not want to participate in fighting him and moved all night. Crawford will do the same because this fight is his retirement pay day.

“It’s a battle for Crawford to show the whole world that he’s the best fighter on the planet,” Tim Bradley said Fighting type On Terence Crawford’s fight against 34-year-old Canelo Alvarez on September 13. “After this, there should be no doubt, and that’s what he wants. He is willing to take the risk so that there is no doubt who is the best fighter on planet Earth, and he really believes with all his heart, ”Bradley said of Crawford.

“If he achieves this victory, it’s great. I don’t think there has ever been anyone who came up from 135 to 168 pounds and the best man is there. It will be an unchecked area for this sport.

“Where I stand with it, I don’t know, but Terence Crawford would be considered one of the best fighters on planet Earth if he achieved this victory. At least in this generation, but I don’t know. I will make the fans decide, ”Bradley said.

Boring is back

If Crawford wins this battle, it will be by him to the Mayweather Blueprint by boxing, moving, hitting and holding all night. He will have to play it safe to win, and it will be boring for the fans. Fighting as Mayweather did in 2013 against Canelo will hurt many fans, making them feel stupid because they thought the fight was going to be exciting.

Many of them have never seen Crawford fight and will be trapped in the hype without looking at six or seven of his last fighting. I followed Crawford his entire career, and he always had a dull style, just a little more entertaining than Shakur Stevenson. He is a slightly more offensive version of Shakur. He is not exciting like the Top 154 ​​pound, and he is nowhere to look as an excellent Errol in front of his car accident.

“It’s a fight that I feel that everyone is going to set up and watch. I think the comfort is going to set up too. Canelo attracts the casual people in general, but with the name Bud Crawford, I think everyone will turn in because of him. They want to see if he can be wonderful. Bud is going to give you everything. Win, lose or pull, he’s going to give you everything, ”says Bradley.

Accidental fans will set up because of the hype and the enormous marketing stick of Turki al-Sheikh, but that doesn’t mean they will enjoy the product. Fans in the US prefer action fights, and they like to look at cat-and-mouse business where one man chases a runner across the creation. The casual fans who buy this event on PPV will be disappointed in the Canelo-Crawford match. But what can save the day is if Turki is better fighting with younger fighters with entertaining styles. This will partly make up the dull main event between Crawford and Canelo.

“For me, there were some blueprints out there how to beat Canelo,” Bradley said. There. When he was younger and when he went up to 175, when he tested the waters up there and fought Bably. There is a way to bet him. Canelo will have to create a way to beat Crawford, and it will not be with pure pressure. ‘

There is only one blueprint on how to beat Canelo, and that’s the mayweather one. Dmitri Bivol followed the Mayweather’s blueprint in his victory over Canelo. The only other fighter who gave Canelo problems was Gennadiy Golovkin, but he struck it with power. Crawford cannot do this because he was not as strong, robust or as big as GGG during his first two battles with Alvarez.

“He’ll have to think of him. He will have to work out, and he will have to eliminate him. It will have to be a combination of everything to beat Crawford, ”says Bradley.

Back to earth

Tim goes a bit overboard and says Canelo-Crawford will decide who the ‘best fighter on the planet’ is because it is not what this battle will decide. It’s just a novelty fight, not unlike Canelo would fight against Jake Paul. The only difference is that fewer fans will see this battle. There would have been much more if Canelo had fought against Jake.

Both of these guys are as old as the hills, which in their last battles are fading and looking. Crawford is 38 in September, and he lost his last fight against Israel Madrimov on August 3. Canelo looked very bad on September 14 on September 14 in his last battle against the humble Edgar Berlanga and threw out after four rounds.