Keith Thurman believes Terence Crawford watched the success that Jermell Charlo had against Canelo Alvarez and will feel he can do the same thing if he gets the chance to fight him.
Thurman states that Jermell protected himself well in his fight against Canelo last year on September 30th, neutralizing the Mexican star’s offense. The problem was that Jermall forgot about his offense and wound up losing a wide 12-round unanimous decision. He was too focused on moving and holding.
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Old ‘One Time’ Thurman says that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will have watched that fight and will make sure he puts more emphasis on his offense to defeat Canelo. Keith mentions Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dmitry Bivol as two fighters who had success against Canelo by fighting the perfect fight to defeat him.
Beating Crawford won’t do anything for Canelo’s legacy because he’s a smaller, older fighter just looking for a payday, who looked very average in his debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
Canelo would receive no credit from fans for beating the 37-year-old Crawford because he’s an older fighter who has shown no willingness to move up to 168 to prove himself against the Lions, David Benavidez, and David Morrell. This is just about Crawford wanting a payday to help with his retirement.
“The potential of speed, high-quality defense,” said Keith Thurman to Fighthype about what Terence Crawford would bring to a fight against Canelo Alvarez. “When Canelo fought [Jermell] Charlo. Besides the knockdown, Charlo was able to protect himself very well against Canelo’s onslaught.”
“The only problem was while protecting himself, there was no offense. Seeing what, I saw the same thing. If Charlo can go so untouched [so can Crawford]. Floyd, Bivol, where are the mistakes? You’ve got to get that 10 out of 10. You don’t make mistakes,” said Thurman.
It sounds like Thurman never watched the Canelo vs. Jermell fight because his recollection of what happened sounds more like fantasy stuff. Canelo hit Jermell Charlo plenty in that fight. The movement and clinching only protected Jermell from being knocked out. But he didn’t shut down Canelo’s offense any more than Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia did. Canelo was walked down Jermell all night, loading up on single head and body shots to win a wide decision.
Crawford could only move around because he didn’t have the power or size to stand and fight Canelo. He’s not as big or as strong as Jermell, and that guy wasn’t sturdy enough to be competitive with Canelo.
Of course, Crawford’s focus on fighting Canelo isn’t about winning. He’s winning just by getting the massive payday fight. It’s all about the money. If Crawford cared about wanting to defeat Canelo, he’d have already moved up to 168 and gotten some experience by fighting Benavidez, Morrell, and Diego Pacheco.
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