Because hes 5'9. 168 is one pound below the floor of being considered "overweight". BMI considers an obese 5'9er to be 203. 7 pound weight classes have distorted our understanding of size. We are looking at him as a 140er jumping 4 weight classes and not a 5'9 guy with a 75 inch wingspan. Hes not Timothy Bradley.
He definitely wasn't completely shredded - but yes he looked pretty physically good considering the weight jump. More importantly, he performed wonderfully.
If it was anyone else, there would be few people excusing it. There are only two options here. 1. He is one of the biggest 'weight bullies' in boxing, even more than Canelo, having the size to fight at 160+ but fighting under welter. 2. He used PEDs to build himself at middle-age into a lean 160+ fighter. I say 160+ to be fair, since 168 is more of a convenience weight for Canelo and that's why he dragged plenty of non 168'rs up. They could have had this fight at 160. But let's just consider that Bud could have fought Malignaggi at some point and now he's up past MW. Malignaggi was openly critical of all this weight class jumping and explained why it happens. So I'm sure he would be quite amazed at this situation. Even if you just consider the jump from 135 to 154, or 140 to 160, that's basically 20lbs of lean muscle you need to get if you are still lean at the new weight. It's laughable to pretend PEDs aren't doing the job. I wonder if all the people excusing this stuff realise how difficult it is to put on 20lbs of lean muscle as a male of average height.
Too many people aren't able to cope with nuances / cognitive dissonance anymore. Crawford fought a historic fight. But more because of the popular significance of beating someone with a great resume many weight classes beyond and ending his reign. It also was a great performance of Crawford. There are caveats though - his opponent was not nearly in his prime, had been looking bad for a few fights already and wasn't big for the weight, plus crawford was actually at least as big on fight night as canelo was. And this one, too: It takes a certain amount of time to gain muscle. Even way more so if it should be strictly functional, lean muscle. And the amount he gained is a lot. Or it wasn't a lot so we have to consider him a bit of a 'weight bully' (at least anyone who subscribes to that concept concerning canelo, benavidez, zurdo, spence, haney, boots...) and reconsider his former wins in that regard. Personally I assume a mixture of both. Being associated with SNAC is never a good look while being able to rehydrate 20 pounds regularly (same as Haney who is/was also with SNAC). Crawford is still a great fighter and top 3 p4p. I personally prefer Inoue and Usyk for the top 2 spots, but many parts of crawford's game are unsurpassed by any other current fighter
Give it up. Stop crying. You are trying to hard to put a red flag on Crawford all because your PBC girlfriends are to weak to accomplish half of what he's done. You must have never been in the gym a day of your life. Crawford doesn't drink, smoke, eat red meat, etc... Something your PBC Man crushes can't say about themselves. Charlo coming in "pudgy" is evidence to his self discipline. Crawford spent 11 months preparing for Canelo. Are you silly enough to think he waited until the official announcement to start preparing his body for such a task. Crawford walks around north of 180 these days. He's not some young 23 year old lightweight trying to get his name out there. He's damn near 40 and his body has matured. It was a struggle for him to chop down to 147, thus he moved up. He said 154 was a task as well, so why are people so surprised that he was comfortable at 168. Young athletes in team sports put on 20+ muscles all the time especially in football within a year. All of a sudden we gotta start questioning Crawford who has yet to test positive for ANYTHING and lives the most healthy lifestyle of most fighters.
OP still salty about the beating Spence took. Also that Instagram / Twitter photo is heavily touched up if not photo shopped. That being said I wouldn't rule out clenbuterol "tainted beef"
He's a weight bully...feel like his bodies gifted for cutting ...struggling with Gamboa to twatting canelo lol I know canelo is old but still that jump should be too far... I would say gear but he's been huge for his weights for years...I don't dislike Crawford but there's something about him...I cant warm to him...I hate canelo but Crawford hanging with supermiddles....he's skilled as fick but not like God tier where I could see him jumping 3 divisions
Not accusing him of being on PEDs. He's always been a very big guy who had cut and rehydrated a lot of weight and was huge or very big for every weight class he's fought in but he can't complain about others being suspicious This content is protected
As said, he's always been a big dude but he can't escape the PED cheat accusations after smearing Manny as one He cites Manny no longer knocking people out at the higher weights after doing testing but unlike him Manny was fighting bigger or much bigger guys when he moved up in weight and routinely too