Terence Crawford made beating Canelo Alvarez look easy at times, even if it was far from it.
“Bud” was in top form Saturday as he won a unanimous decision over Canelo to become just the third fighter to defeat the Mexican star and, in doing so, claimed Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight champion status. This marks the fifth weight class in which Crawford has won a world title and the third in which he can claim to be the undisputed king of the division.
Though Crawford is known for his technical
mastery and adaptability, he and his team put together a relatively simple game plan to foil Canelo.
“I wanted to come out orthodox, but my coaches is just telling me your southpaw is going to kill him,” Crawford said on the Netflix post-fight show. “He’s not going to get past the jab. His feet are slow. Keep turning him. And that’s what we did tonight.”
“We knew what he was trying to do with wide hooks,” Crawford added. “I think he knew I was fighter than he thought I was, so if he threw a lot of jabs, I was going to counter him, and I think he just respected my power.”
The early rounds of the contest were close and that was reflected on the scorecards, that saw two judges score the fight 115-113 in Crawford’s favor. Later on, it became clear Crawford was a step ahead of Canelo for the majority of the second half of the fight and Crawford confirmed that he had to flip the switch at the right time.
“I felt like I had to separate myself,” Crawford said. “I didn’t want to eat too soon, so I was biding my time and when the time came, I let my hands go.”
Crawford had to jump up over 10 pounds to hit the super middleweight limit, a move that raised questions as to how he would deal with Canelo’s power. The 35-year-old Canelo hasn’t scored a knockout since 2021, but he has almost 40 wins by KO/TKO on his storied résumé, and the possibility of him flooring Crawford loomed over the megafight.
As it turns out, Crawford didn’t have that much to worry about.
“He didn’t hit as hard as I thought he was,” Crawford said. “He’s definitely technical, but I’ve been hit harder.”
Watch more from Crawford at Saturday’s post-fight press conference below.
