As Terence Crawford reflects on his undisputed super middleweight title win over Canelo Alvarez, he talks to Andre Ward about preparing himself to make the physical leap up several weight divisions in order to make the fight happen.
“When I was fighting at these lower weights I had to always keep myself from growing,” Crawford said. “When I was at 147 everybody was like ‘man, he’s a gym rat.’ I’m always in the gym anyway but I had to stay in the gym because I had to keep my weight down and stay in reasonable
touching range to be able to make weight. So when I was able to work out, not worry about what I do in the weight room or what I do nutrition wise, my body just started doing what it do.
“Like, I didn’t tell my body to just get bigger or nothing…A lot of people don’t know this but I started working out for Canelo in February. This was a process. They think this happened overnight. Chet was like ‘you going to get this Canelo fight, we got to start now, got to start working on your legs, working on your power so you can withstand those big shots and you know he’s going to be punching your arms’ and this and that. So we already preparing for Canelo in February. So when they say ‘ah he just gained all this weight,’ nah, it was a process. It was bulk and then cut.”
Crawford was then asked about fighting infrequently and whether he believes extended time in between fights is a hindrance.
“I think you get your sharpness from sparring and in the gym. If you’re sharp in the gym you’re going to be sharp in the fight. That’s just me. A lot of people don’t believe that…Me being in the game for so long, your body needs rest. So when you having these camps after camps after camps thinking ‘I’m staying active,’ you’re constantly tearing down your body.
“So when they say ‘oh, well Terence, he fights one time a year.’ That’s cool, for me. If I fight twice a year that’d be great, but one time a year — hey, I’m giving my body the proper time it needs to recover because as I got older that’s just as important as anything else, is recovery.”
