By: Sean Crose
It’s comprehensible why some, if not most, battle followers would think about tremendous middleweight/gentle heavyweight Canelo Alvarez to be a bridge too far for junior middleweight Terence Crawford. 100 sixty eight kilos is kind of a weight benefit to carry over a 100 fifty 4 pound fighter. Even at a catchweight it’s clear that Canelo’s dimension may current a substantial downside for former junior welterweight Crawford. Nonetheless, there are those that know the battle sport in and out who really feel that Crawford stands an excellent probability in opposition to Canelo if the 2 males ought to meet within the close to future.
If famed coach Teddy Atlas has something to say about it (and Atlas at all times has tons to say), Crawford shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand. Though the fighter referred to as “Bud” didn’t cease Israil Madrimov in his junior middleweight debut, he nonetheless gained the battle. What’s extra, Atlas feels it was a studying expertise for the multi-division champion.
“Don’t go and imagine it’s going to be the identical Crawford,” Atlas instructed Struggle Hub, “when he steps as much as one sixty eight if that occurs. That is going to be a greater armed Crawford, even higher than he’s been. That is going to be a Crawford that’s now armed with that data, now armed with extra confidence, now armed with the issues that he wants in his thoughts so as to add one other pelt to his assortment, so as to add one other belt, one other title, so as to add to the already nice assortment that he has.”
Does that imply Atlas feels Crawford will beat Canelo? In fact not. Earlier within the interview, Atlas spoke glowingly of Canelo and indicated it’s silly to contemplate the person is completed at this level in his lengthy profession. Positive sufficient, Atlas stated he felt Canelo had made some optimistic modifications on his personal when he defeated Edgar Berlanga a couple of weeks again.
The reality is {that a} Canelo-Crawford battle needs to be an outrageous proposition. As issues stand, in any case, Canelo now fights two, typically three, divisions above the place Crawford fights in the meanwhile. What makes this potential throwdown intriguing, nonetheless, is Crawford, a disciplined, skillful, dynamic fighter who could be the one finest fighter, pound for pound on earth. Seeing a fantastic like Crawford going through a dwelling legend equivalent to Canelo is scary and engaging concurrently – scary due to the distinction within the fighter’s pure sizes, engaging as a result of it’s genuinely value questioning if Crawford may pull it off.
