Terence Crawford’s coach, Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre, says he’ll study the Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dmitry Bivol fights closely if Bud faces Canelo Alvarez to use tactics from them to defeat the Mexican superstar.
Emulating the Masters
BoMac will use the Mayweather and Bivol fights for ideas to create a blueprint for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to follow to defeat unified super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs). It will be hit-and-run by Crawford for 12 rounds. Replicating Bivol and Mayweather’s style for Canelo will make it boring for the fans on PPV. Many will be angry and feel ripped off if Crawford doesn’t stand and fight to make it entertaining. Crawford’s last fight against Israil Madrimov was a chess match and not exciting to watch.
It’s still questionable whether Crawford will get to fight Canelo before he retires, but it’s good to know how he plans to fight him. It’ll be a copy of Mayweather and Bivol. The fight might not be entertaining for fans if Crawford connects and then retreats three steps the way Floyd did, but the approach may work for him to win a decision.
Mayweather fought 22-year-old Canelo in 2013 at a 152-lb catchweight and fought a lot like Shakur Stevenson does now. Floyd would land a jab and then step back two to three feet to avoid his attempts to return fire.
He frustrated Canelo by using his speed to connect single shots and retreated to safety. It was like watching a game of tag. When Canelo would get close, Mayweather tied him up.
WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol used a similar style to Floyd but without less retreating and more power punching. He had the size over Canelo, so he didn’t have to use Mayweather’s fighting style entirely, but it was still similar.
A Fight for Crawford’s Legacy, Not Entertainment
“He made him move his feet. If the fight ever materialized, that’s the fight that I would go back and watch,” said trainer BoMac McIntyre to the Luke Thomas YouTube channel about his studying the Canelo-Bivol fight if Terence Crawford gets the fight against Canelo Alvarez. “I’d look at Mayweather [vs. Canelo], too.
“He told me the same thing he’s been telling the world. ‘That’s the fight that I want [Canelo]. I want to put a stamp on my legacy, and I want to go out on top,’” BoMac about Crawford wanting Canelo Alvarez for legacy purposes.
If you’re Canelo, you have a decision to make about the Crawford fight because BoMac has now tipped off the fans how he plans on putting together a game plan. That will put Canelo in a situation where he will be forced to solve a style that he’s 0-2 against, and it won’t be easy. Crawford will move crazy after he lands and tie up Canelo when he closes the distance.
It’s a negative situation for Canelo because he’ll be dealing with a bigger version of Mayweather or Shakur Stevenson, and it won’t be an actual fight the way he likes. It would be cat and mouse. Assuming Canelo wins, he won’t receive credit. That’s a given. It would be a fight just for money and to get the boxing world’s attention.
This would be a fight solely for Crawford, who receives a massive retirement paycheck and would come off as the victor, even if he loses. All Crawford has to do is make Canelo struggle to beat him, and he’ll be praised like the winner afterward.
Fans will lampoon Canelo, tarnishing his legacy. It would be the same if Crawford fought the much smaller lightweight Gervonta Davis and struggled to beat him. Crawford would receive zero credit for beating him, and if it were a difficult fight, he’d be laughed at.
Crawford’s Performance Against Madrimov
“I give him an A -,” said Bomac when asked for a grade for Crawford’s fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. “He boxed his tail off for that fight, and Madrimov didn’t do nothing that we thought he was going to do.”
Fans did not give Crawford an A-grade for his fight against Madrimov. Crawford took a lot of right hands and looked his age. He won the fight by a 12-round decision, but his performance showed that he’s not the same fighter at 154 as he was at 147, 140, and 135. Fans gave Crawford a C grade, and some viewed it as a D performance.
“He used his jab a lot, and he tried to get Madrimov to engage with him a little bit more, which Madrimov really wouldn’t do,” said BoMac. “I asked him [Crawford] if he’s strong, and he said he’s physically strong, but his punch didn’t have no pop on it. I think at 154, Bud can do really, really well.”
Madrimov landed a lot of heavy right hands that snapped Crawford’s head back, and they looked pretty powerful. The punches were hard enough to keep Crawford from fighting aggressively like he’d done when he was fighting at 147 in his previous clash against Errol Spence.
“That right hand that he was throwing, I didn’t think he would throw it that straight,” said BoMac about Madrimov. “We thought it was going to be looping like the way GGG throws it. So that surprised me. You can’t make too much of it because once he realized he could land it, he just kept throwing it,” BoMac about the rights Madrimov was hitting Crawford with.
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