Promoter Bob Arum says he is not banking on his former fighter Terence Crawford in a title fight against WBA/WBC/WBO super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez if they meet this September in a 12-round mega-fight.
A threat at the flick of a switch
Arum thinks Crawford’s (37-year-old, 39 KOs) ability to switch strikes will bother Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) just as it did Errol Spence when they fought in 2023. Errol was overmatched against Crawford, it seems slow, exhausted and nowhere near the fighter he was in 2018.
Crawford’s southpaw against Canelo is unlikely to faze the Mexican star as he has fought many left-handed fighters and never had a problem with them. If Bud turns southpaw, it won’t affect the fight except that he will take heavy hits while in the second stance.
The real problem that Arum doesn’t mention is that Crawford is too old, small and weak to fight at 168. He’s probably hoping to bulk up 14 lbs and do what Floyd Mayweather Jr. did. did against the then 22-year-old Canelo in 2013.
It’s stupid because if that version of Mayweather were to fight Canelo now, he would be knocked out. Alvarez is much stronger and more experienced now, and would never settle for a catchweight of 152 lbs.
“I wouldn’t count Crawford out in any fight because he has a unique talent; he’s a great boxer, and he’s a total double,” Bob Arum told Fighthype when asked what are Terence Crawford’s chances against Canelo Alvarez.
“He drives his opponent crazy because they train to fight a southpaw and end up fighting a southpaw. That’s what happened to Errol [when he fought Crawford on June 29, 2023]. Spence trained as a right-handed fighter and all he saw was a southpaw.
“I think what Crawford is looking for is Manny Pacquiao vs. Oscar De La Hoya,” Arum said of what kind of upset Terence is looking for against Canelo.
There are no weights to catch
It was a different situation when Oscar De La Hoya fought Manny Pacquiao in 2008. De La Hoya was a washed-up part-time fighter up to that point in his career, fighting in the junior middleweight division. He agreed to face Pacquiao at catchweight at 145 and then dieted to lose too much weight. He looked terrible, he made weight, and it showed in the fight.
Canelo wouldn’t diet or cut weight for Crawford, and he’s not the over-the-hill, part-time fighter that Oscar was. If Crawford thinks Canelo will be another De La Hoya, he’s wrong. They are two different people.
Canelo remains in shape and will not agree to give Bud a handicap in the fighter category like De La Hoya did with Pacquiao. Oscar never should have done that because he was the ‘Golden Boy’, the superstar in that fight, and he could have insisted that Pacquiao move up to 154 to fight him. It was a strange situation where De La Hoya ducked to give Manny a better chance to equalize on the field. With that, he weakened and lost himself.
