His Excellency Turki Alalshikh stated before the match between Israil Madrimov and Terence Crawford that he had already proposed that Saul ‘Canelo’ Canelo face Terence at 168 lbs.
It was absurd to expect a result different from Crawford’s 12-round unanimous decision victory based on the judges’ cards last night at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
The Crawford vs. Madrimov clash had a rather boring start; even boos were heard near the 4th round from unhappy fans at the dull technical chess match they were witnessing.
In my view, Bud’s performance in this fight was in line with what we expected. Obviously, Terence wouldn’t want to take the chance to trade leather with Madrimov. His strategy was simply to avoid being beaten up in exchanges from the heavy-handed WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs), and he achieved it.
Crawford entered the ring with the certainty that he would reach the last round. After Turki Alalshikh’s statements, that was an easy goal to achieve. I thought the fight was closer than the cards showed. The judges scored it 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
Crawford has a lot of work to do in this weight class based on his performance against Madrimov at 154 pounds. His defensive skills prevented Madrimov from getting to him, and he landed enough shots to win rounds, leading to his fourth world crown.
Unfortunately, Bud Crawford’s age and unattractive boxing style are liabilities. His lack of media interaction and long periods of inactivity have made this scenario worse. A boxer who excels at defense may not be able to connect well with the crowd.
I understand the reasons Terence Crawford chose this fight against Madrimov. Although the style matchup is unattractive, Turki insists that Crawford move up two weight classes to challenge Canelo for his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles in 2025.
If the Alvarez vs. Crawford fight does happen next year, it will be a similar deja vu scenario to the one we saw earlier in Canelo’s career when he fought Josesito Lopez and Amir Khan after those two fighters moved up two weight classes to face him in 2012 and 2016.
Crawford looked slow at 154 pounds last night; this weight class could be his upper ceiling limit. Given how he performed at 154, it would be ridiculous for Bud to move up to 168 to challenge Canelo for his three titles.
Further, the Canelo-Crawford match would be boring and uncompetitive with a predictable outcome. It would be a money grab. The two fighters would be coming to collect a hefty check by someone who is not well-versed in this sport.
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