Santos Saúl Álvarez Barragán vs. Terence Allan Crawford, Jr.

Skills win fights not size. I am going to say it now not only does Crawford win he stops Canelo who has started enjoying sleeping in sil pyjamas.

 

Canelo has a granite ped chin and the judges. Crawford's greatness will be proven if he can completely outbox Canelo for 12 rounds. Otherwise it will be a Canelo decision.

 

Bro, a lot of people are 71 combined, because it is 69 with two fingers.

 

Nobody has gotten into detail just how exactly Crawford will win. Bud has the intangibles, the versatility and determination and he is overall an amazing fighter. Let's be realistic. This fight has him moving up two weight divisions - he is a blown up welterweight against somebody who is a former light heavyweight titleist. Somebody who has stopped and dropped much bigger guys than Crawford. A short analogy of Canelo's only two loses - Mayweather and Bivol. And whether Crawford in some form can emulate them:

A) Mayweather. Canelo, like other former Floyd opponents fell into the trap of overthinking. Where he was second guessing himself and was lulled into a low volume pace in which Floyd kept his distance and hit him with the occasional pot shot. Can Crawford do it? If he were to fight as a southpaw, keep his front foot forward, lead right hand and just counter, it won't work. Canelo won't fall for the same trick again. He is the box office star, he is not gonna star struck against Bud. A second thing is, Canelo has mastered the art of just doing enough to win rounds. He would just spam power shots for the entire fight in route to a routine points victory. At 168, Crawford's shots won't get Canelo's respect.

B) Bivol. If against Mayweather Alvarez was out boxed, against Bivol he was completely outgunned, manhandled and dominated from the fifth round onwards. Again, let's ask ourselves. Can Bud do it? Bivol threw 710 punches and kept a high pace for the entire duration of the fight. Yet he still was almost jobbed on the cards. All of the judges had the fight 115-113, Canelo won the first four rounds and the ninth. If Canelo had magically won another round, IIRC he tried to muster some sort of offense at the final round, but was completely spent. Basically Bivol did so much, yet he was on the verge of not winning. Crawford in most of his fights (those that have gone twelve), he averages around 350-450 punches. The last he threw over 400 punches was against Ricky Burns. Eleven years ago. 38 years old and 13 months inactive aren't an indicator that he can muster such a performance like Bivol.

I had mentioned this in the past here. The entire purpose of this fight was to bring Canelo into the Riyadh sphere of influence. To sign the biggest boxing star in North America and enter the US boxing/combat sport industry. Dana White will promote this event, there will probably be Saudi sponsored UFC cards someday. The deal with Netflix will finally allow Turki and co to earn profit from these shows. But the most important thing is this - sportswashing. To fix Saudi Arabia's reputation. And I guess its working. We are not talking about human right violations there. We are talking about some boxing match between a lightweight and somebody who clearly doesn't care anymore about his fanbase and legacy.

Even though I think Crawford won't do it and this fight is a waste of time. Part of me hopes he kicks Canelo's ass. For all the crap Canelo did in the situation with Benavidez, not fighting him and all. But the fight is in Vegas. Bud is probably already down on two of the scorecards as I am typing this message.

 

You don't really believe Crawford has a better resume than Fury do you?

 

He didn’t look bad vs GGG in fairness

 

All around I think its quite evenly matched but Canelo has operated at this weight for a long time and has a good chin.

If Crawford can use some movement, we know canelo doesn't like movers, he can frustrate Canelo. I just don't think it will be enough to get the win.

Canelo points.

 

Crawford has looked great dismantling ghost of a former fighters.
The Spence win was very good, despite concerns of Spence's fitness for the fight.
Canelo is on the slide, but Crawford is used to be being the much bigger guy on fight night, he won't be here.
Canelo's head movement and counters, mixed with his power, could make this interesting. VS Bud's offensive abilities, how will his power carry up - he's a big guy who drains down, will this affect his hand speed or endurance>?

 

I'm taking Crawford's sharpness and precision. Think Canelo will struggle to land his body attacks.

Crawford UD, and he makes it look relatively easy.

 

Fury's resume is thin as toilet paper. And while TC's isn't great either, probably closer to the same.

 

I think its gonna be close, slightly favoring Canelo. Canelo has had trouble with good boxers. I guess it depends on their stamina and how much the weight increase affects Bud. If Crawford can keep from getting hit with big punches and pickup his workrate in the secod half, hes got a chance to win it.

 

I think the outcome of this fight depends solely on Canelo and how far past it he actually is. If this were the Canelo from 2021-22, he’d smash Crawford to pieces. I’m hoping the size of this fight motivates him. I’d like to see him fight Benavidez or the Bivol/Beterbiev winner.