The fight everyone wanted to watch happened but happened four years late as Floyd Mayweather Jnr and Manny Pacquiao delivered a dull fight that punctured through every excitement in the build up to what was supposed to be an absolute spectacle.
The theatrics were spectacular but the fight clearly wasn’t and the rippling effects of that “failed bout” is still being felt today so much so this weekend’s big bout between Terence Crawford and Saul Canelo Alvarez hasn’t necessarily generated the kind of attention it should.
For starters, the main issue at hand is the timing of the bout as Canelo and Crawford are out of their prime years with Crawford turning 38 two weeks after the fight against a 35 year old Canelo just as Mayweather was 38 and out of his physical prime when he fought 36 year old Pacquiao.
Crawford visibly emptied his prime when he fought Errol Spence while Canelo, who has been fighting professionally since 15, has failed to score a knockout in his last five fights indicating his prime years are well behind.
Canelo was heavily tipped to knockout each of his last five opponents but rather went the distance to score unanimous wins.
Surely John Ryder, Jermell Charlo (who stepped up two weight classes), William Scull, Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga would have been knocked out by prime Canelo and tied to all this is that Munguia, Berlanga and Ryder have all suffered knockout losses after going the distance with Canelo. Scull and Charlo haven’t been knocked out after fighting Canelo because both fighters haven’t fought since sharing the ring with the Mexican star.
For boxing fans, Canelo taking on Crawford is exactly the kind of bout boxing needs as the sport hasn’t generated top level bouts in the realm of sports conversations but this isn’t entirely true since great bouts have taken place this year. Chris Eubank Jnr and Conor Benn, Isaac Cruz and Angel Fierro, Joshua Buatsi and Callum Smith, Gervonta Davis and Lamont Roach and Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev II delivered brilliant fights this year but this generally gets glossed over.
Canelo is the face of boxing but seeing him deliver boring bouts against Charlo and Scull hurt boxing’s crossover appeal to casual fans and it isn’t surprising that Canelo’s bout against Crawford isn’t driving the sports tabloids.
Looking at the contrasting fight styles Crawford and Canelo take to the ring on Sunday at 2AM Ghana time, the subsequent result could further dent boxing’s appeal even beyond the damage Mike Tyson’s agreed exhibition bout against Mayweather Jnr and the shocking matchup between YouTuber Jake Paul and Gervonta Davis have already caused.
At the end of 12 rounds, Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez will very likely fight to a majority draw in a bout that won’t get casual fans jumping out of their seats because Crawford will make it as boring as possible in his bid to get Canelo to initiate engagement to land some shots and score points.
Welterweight Crawford is stepping up three weight classes to fight Canelo for the undisputed super middleweight titles and scoring points off jabs thrown from range and utilizing angles to keep Canelo off him is his best option to score a win.
Crawford’s immense skills that get him to switch swiftly and smoothly from orthodox stance to southpaw allied with his elite footwork to evade getting the ring cut off for him, and punch selections forged over a decade, will be too much for Canelo to deal with even if Alvarez sparred with Jaron Ennis for a couple of days in training camp.
One of the underrated sides to Crawford’s much acclaimed skills is his ability to engage in roughhousing methods by tapping into his wrestling background so he isn’t going to be bullied by the natural middleweight Canelo in the fight.
While a punch can change the outcome of a bout, shake up an entire division (cue Vasiliy Lomachenko’s loss to Teofimo Lopez) and forever alter the course of history (cue Buster Douglas’ knockout win over Mike Tyson), what Crawford won’t do is knockout Canelo. The Mexican has too strong a chin and a neck to get knocked out by a guy moving up-again-three weight classes.
Even when Canelo fought in the higher weight class of the light heavyweight against arguably the best in the division, Dmitry Bivol, he wasn’t knocked out so a Crawford knockout is definitely not on the cards.
In Canelo’s camp, tape on the Israil Madrimov bout at junior middleweight is the only one they can use to scheme a strategy for the Crawford fight and even that could prove problematic. Yes Madrimov gave Crawford serious problems but Canelo doesn’t move around the ring as sharply as the Uzbek so Alvarez would have to rely on his power to break Crawford.
Through five rounds of Canelo’s fight against Caleb Plant, the American scored points by working off his jab but from rounds six to getting knocked out in the 11th round, Plant absorbed punishing punches that sapped the pop out of his punches and made his body so sore that he couldn’t take more punishment that got him to eventually give in.
Delivering heavy punches to the body will be the game plan for Canelo to slow down Crawford and potentially break him down and having the sold out crowd firmly behind him is sure to influence the judges’ decision at the end of the bout that will likely lead to a draw just as it was when Canelo fought Gennady Golovkin for the first time.
Golovkin won that fight but Canelo’s activity off flurries drew a lot of cheers from the crowd so loud the judges had to make the political decision and score the bout a draw. On Sunday, Crawford will box well and score points but Canelo’s power will give him some leverage and the partisan crowd will do the rest to even the scores.
In some twisted way, a Terence Crawford- Canelo Alvarez rematch, aside a draw, is the most likely outcome on Sunday’s bout and that is sure to be great for Crawford who has confessed that the only things keeping him in boxing now are legacy fights and it doesn’t get any bigger for legacy reasons than having two sips at boxing’s biggest cash cow.
