Terence Crawford posted his current 186-lb weight as he prepares for his September 13th fight against unified upper middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. If Crawford rehydrates to that weight, he will be slow and sluggish, making him easy prey for Canelo. Adding weight isn’t going to be the Fountain of Youth for Crawford. He’ll just be an old 190-pounder, several weight classes above where he should be at 147.
This fight is similar to Turki Al-Sheikh’s novelty fights, which involved former UFC champion Francis Ngannou taking on Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua in boxing matches without proving himself.
Crawford is doing nothing to show that he deserves to move up two divisions to challenge Canelo for his super middleweight titles. That’s why it was weird that Turki was against Canelo fighting Jake Paul on May 3rd. Turki argued that Canelo fighting Jake wouldn’t help set up the “big fight’ against Crawford in September.
That’s a lot of weight that Crawford, 37, will need to lose when he cuts down to 168 for his unearned title shot against WBA, WBC, and WBO champion Alvarez in Turki’s Riyadh Season card.
No Tune-up
Crawford is not going to take a tune-up fight to prepare himself for his match against Canelo, which is a sign that he’s worried about losing to someone and missing out on the payday. Terence almost got beat in his last fight, moving up to 154 against Israil Madrimov.
Bulking up isn’t going to give the Nebraska native Golovkin-esque power or his chin magically. He will be the same Crawford who showed zero power in his last fight at 154. He’s still going to be a 38-ish fighter moving up to 168 without a tune-up to get a big bag and then retire or return to 154.
El peso en el que anda @terencecrawford , rival de @Canelo para septiembre en Las Vegas #CaneloCrawford pic.twitter.com/ZBIGstjOrE
— Salvador Rodriguez (@ChavaESPN) February 9, 2025
“I don’t want to say it’s impossible for Crawford, but if he really wants to win against Canelo, he’s going to need to do everything,” said Keith ‘One Time’ Thurman to Fight Hub TV about Terence Crawford needing to do something special to defeat Canelo Alvarez.
“You’re going to need to run uphill. You’re going to need to train at high altitudes. You’re going to need to do every little thing that gives you that athletic edge and a lot of pre-fight meditate. You’ve got to see victory before the victory manifests.
“Whether ‘I’m going to set the trap. He’s going to want to counter me, so I’m going to counter his counter. I’m not going to say it’s impossible for Crawford, but it’s one of those things that need to be planned out, trained out, and methodically delivered on the fight night.”
Thurman is talking a bunch of nonsense as usual. Crawford can meditate and run up hills all he wants, but he’s still going to be old and too small to beat Canelo at 168. For Crawford to have a chance at beating Canelo, he would have needed to move up to super middleweight a long time ago. He doesn’t have the power, true size, and youth to pull off an upset. I don’t think that’s what this fight is about.
The Payday
This is just Crawford getting a retirement payday and Turki, a fan of his, helping him out. If Turki really wanted to make this interesting, he’d have told Crawford to move up o 168 and beat one or two of the top fighters. He’s not doing that.
“The other thing is how athletic is he going to move with the extra weight on top of him. Like I said,” said Crawford. “It’s important to train and have the best camp that you can. The high altitude, get all that oxygen and use all those bio-hacking things to your advantage to make an upset.
“You’re going to go home a winner. You’ve done great things in boxing, Crawford, that is. Canelo, too. They both get to be winners. They both get to be legends, but if Crawford wants to be something that can never be compared to.
“Floyd beat Canelo, but we know what Canelo Floyd beat. He beat the young Canelo, the not really ready for the big boys Canelo. If Crawford beats, he beat big boy, Canelo,” said Thurman.
Last Updated on 02/09/2025
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