Terence Crawford Dismisses Media Doubts, Compares Canelo Fight To Errol Spence Victory

Terence Crawford says he feels the media is dismissing his chance of beating Canelo Alvarez at super middleweight like they did when he fought Errol Spence.

Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) states that the media says they’ve never seen a smaller, “Great fighter” move up two divisions and beat a bigger, “great fighter.” He feels that he’s already proven he can beat a bigger fighter when he defeated Spence in 2023, and he’ll do it again when he faces Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs).

“Never Been Done?”

Crawford claims that it’s “never been done” before where a “great” fighter moved up two divisions to defeat a “great” world champion. Considering himself as “great” is a bit of a stretch, given his weak resume. The TRUE great Sugar Ray Leonard moved up two weight classes from welterweight to defeat middleweight champion Marvin Hagler on April 6, 1987. Leonard’s resume is far better than Crawford’s barren one.

Greatness Defined

In the first four years of his career, from 1977 to 1981, Sugar Ray Leonard assembled a superior resume than what Crawford produced in his entire 17-year career. Leonard already fought Roberto Duran x 2, Tommy Hearns, Wilfried Benitez and Floyd Mayweather Sr.

Spence isn’t a good gauge for Terence to use to prove to fans that he will beat Canelo because the two are three divisions apart in size. The victory over the post-car crash wrecked, weight-drained, and depleted Spence only shows that Crawford could take advantage of what was left of this guy.

Why the media doubt Crawford

• Chronic Inactivity
• Moving up two divisions
• Poor Showing in last fight
• Age: 38 in September
• Fighting Canelo for the wrong reasons: Money, not legacy
• Choosing to take a tune-up at 168
• Weak resume: Spence only name on Crawford’s 17-year resume

Even if Crawford does win, he’s likely to make it boring by following the Mayweather blueprint and hitting, moving, and holding Canelo all night. That’s going to cheapen any win Crawford could get, making it controversial. If Canelo is doing all the pressuring and landing the harder shots all night, it’s going to naturally lead to controversy if Crawford wins by hitting and running like Floyd did.

“My thought process about moving up two divisions is doing something that has never been done before,” said Terence Crawford to Ring Magazine about him potentially moving up two divisions from 154 to challenge unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez at 168 in September.

Spence: Misleading 

“In the media, when you hear them talk, you always hear them say, they’ve never seen a smaller, great fighter, beat a big great fighter. ‘He’s the bigger, he’s the stronger, and he’s the more powerful fighter.’ These are the things they said about [former welterweight champion Errol] Spence.

“We don’t know what to expect with Crawford because we’ve never seen Crawford at this weight before. We’ve never seen Crawford take a punch from a bigger guy like Canelo. We know Crawford can box and move, but can he take a punch?” said Bud, trying to build interest in his fight with Alvarez.