The fight was competitive and tense, but it didn’t feel like a meeting between the best super middleweight in the division and a challenger who rose to meet him.
Among hardcore fans, the reaction after the final bell was pretty consistent. They showed how slow and stiff Canelo looked and how much of the fight looked like a veteran managing decline rather than asserting control. By the later rounds, there was a sense that neither Crawford nor Canelo would beat the younger push fighters waiting at 168.
Names kept coming up in that discussion, including Osleys Iglesias, Christian Mbilli and Lester Martinez, fighters known for size, pace and sustained pressure that Canelo hasn’t faced in his time as a super middleweight. This is where the criticism starts to stick.
Max Kellerman addressed the issue InsideRingShowsaying that if Canelo looks bad in his next fight, people will say Crawford is beating a post-prime version, and that result will hurt Crawford because the two performances are linked, whether he wants it to be or not.
Fans didn’t need a future fight to come to that view. Many already said this after the final bell, reading the performance as one that represents a champion closer to the end than the pinnacle.
You could argue that Canelo would have lost his super middleweight titles years earlier if he had faced the real threats in the division, including David Benavidez, David Morrell, Iglesias, Mbilli or Martinez, but those fights never happened and the belts stayed with him as time went on.
Crawford stepped in at the right moment to face a champion who remained skilled but no longer operating at his sharpest level. He won and then walked away before the division could react.
This decision protects the record and keeps the debate unresolved.
Crawford’s biggest win came against a name rather than a full division. If that name continues to fade, victory will be seen through that lens.
