Trainer Stephen Edwards believes 37-year-old junior middleweight Terence Crawford can move up two divisions and give Canelo Alvarez fits at 168 with his movement. He says that Crawford can defeat Canelo if he can move like he did when he fought Viktor Postol in 2016, which is physically impossible without a fully functioning time machine.
Edwards feels that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) would be at a “comfortable” weight at 168, ready to move like he did when he was considerably younger and lighter against the thin, lighter-punching Postol. He argues that Crawford can beat Canelo if he punches on the move like he did against Postol.
Edwards is a classic example of a Crawford fan who feels that he’s infallible, can beat anyone with movement, and has an offense limited to potshots. These Crawford fans don’t want to accept that he’s gotten old, reached his ceiling at 154, and lost his nerve to fight the top guys during his bad experience against Israil Madrimov.
Can Crawford Find His Old 2016 Legs?
To back up his claim, Edwards comments on a clip of Crawford moving around the ring for nearly a minute against Postol before dropping him with a single punch in what appears to be a flash knockdown.
Crawford hasn’t moved like that in many years, and he showed very little mobility in his recent fight in his debut at 154 against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
In that fight, Crawford ate hard right hands from Madrimov all night and narrowly edged a 12-round unanimous decision that easily could have gone the other way. Edwards says that the reason Crawford didn’t move more is because he didn’t have to.
I’m not sure that’s the reality. It looked more like age and inactivity, having taken away Crawford’s age. He wasn’t stationary on purpose in that fight because he was getting hit harder than he ever had, and the fight came down to the last three rounds.
Even if Crawford tried to fight the way he did eight years ago when he beat Postol, he couldn’t. He wouldn’t move for 12 rounds like that, particularly if he bulked up to fight at 168 against Canelo.
Stephen believes Canelo may choose to fight Crawford. However, that might be wishful thinking. If Canelo sees the old clip of Terence’s fight against Postol, it’s doubtful he will fight him because, at 34, he won’t want to fight a runner. Canelo doesn’t fight guys that move a lot because he doesn’t like to deal with all the movement at his age.
Crawford himself wouldn’t fight someone who had a nightmarish style for him like David Benavidez because it would stand no chance of winning.
Moreover, this would be a no-win match-up for Canelo, where he wouldn’t receive credit for beating Crawford, and he’d be criticized for the remainder of his career if he struggled to win or lost. It would be the same situation for Crawford if he fought Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and was made to look bad in winning or if he lost.
Not surprisingly, Crawford has shown no interest in fighting Boots because there’s nothing to gain in that fight and everything to lose. Crawford is more popular than Boots. It would be him getting everything out of the match. Canelo is far more popular than Crawford, who is only well-known to hardcore fans.
Who Will Meet Canelo’s $150M Price?
Canelo has already said he won’t take the fight with Crawford. So, it’s kind of pointless to bang on about it unless someone meets the Mexican star’s asking price of $150 million. He wants that kind of cash for the Crawford fight, and there’s no one on earth willing to pay him that kind of money.
What Crawford should do is forget about Canelo and either fight the guys at 154 that are willing to face him or retire.
You see how well Crawford punched on the move, boxed and was simultaneously defensively responsible….this fight lets me know he can fight a style that would give Canelo fits. Absolute fits. If he doesnt get clipped, he would outbox the ATG Canelo. https://t.co/nkGwXFMEOx
— Stephen Edwards (@BreadmanBoxing) October 24, 2024
