Shane Mosley says it will be difficult for Terence Crawford to win a win against the undisputed super -middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13, because he did not act to get a few fights in that weight class.
Mosley noted that when he went up from 147 to 154 during his career, he was slower and had the speed he had before. He says Canelo told him that he felt he was better at 147 after beating him at 154 in 2012.
Canelo smeared with Mosley in the past when he fought at 147, and he felt he was faster when he was lighter. Crawford had one fight at 154 and did not impress Israil Madrimov in August. Now he is moving on two divisions to come across Canelo at 168 after putting it out of the ring for 13 months.
Mosley says Jermell Charlo told him that when he acted from 154 to 168 to fight Canelo in 2023, he felt slower than he was.
Crawford’s tune-up mised opportunity
“168, you need a while to be there. If you haven’t fought there once or twice, where we can see and measure, I don’t know, ‘Shane Mosley said Fighting type About Terence Crawford did not gain a little experience at 168 to prepare him for the fight against Canelo Alvarez.
Crawford should have taken two fast tune-ups at 168 to prepare himself for Canelo. He had a whole year to sit and wait for the Alvarez fight. So there was a lot of time for Terence to fight like Caleb Plant, Diego Pacheco and Bekemir Melikuziev.
Crawford was probably afraid to lose, and when Turki Alalshikh changed his mind to use him as the B-side opponent for Canelo to fight in September. Crawford is believed to be one of Turki’s favorite fighters. But if he lost in one or two of his votes at 168, Crawford might no longer be on Turki’s favorites.
Weight gain delayed Crawford, notice Mosley
“Jermell Charlo told Crawford,” If you go to 168, you’re going to delay. You’re not going to be fast. You’re going to be slow. You won’t be able to move that much. It will feel different. You will get faster because you have extra weight. So, you have to deal with it. To do this.
Crawford looked slower, just after 154 moves. You can only imagine how much slower he will move to 168 and move all the extra weight all night around the ring against the big punching Canelo.
Former undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell was slower when he moved up to 154, and he was a naturally larger fighter than Crawford. He doesn’t have to gain as much weight, but it still delayed him, and he lost a wide decision to Canelo.
“It’s going to be that you only fight in 168. You were once at 154. You were at 147 (from 2018 to 2023). 154 once, and then you go to 168. It’s a kind of difficult, “says Mosley.
What Mosley omits is that Crawford did not look spectacular in his one fight at 154 against Israil Madrimov. Terence won the battle, but it was very close, and he did not distinguish himself in the division. The performance showed that Crawford would not be able to locate all the belts on 154 as he did at 140 and 147.
If Crawford remained in that weight class, he may have been beaten by the contenders. There are three or four in the division that would have been a nightmare for the outdated Crawford.
Last updated on 07/02/2025
