Boxing

Former World Champion Reveals How Terence Crawford Can Beat Canelo Alvarez

Former world champion reveals how Terence Crawford can beat Canelo Alvarez.
Apratim Banerjee|
IMAGO / PA Images

Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford is official and the fight will take place on September 12 at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada. 'Bud' Crawford will be moving up two weight classes to take on Alvarez in the super middleweight division.

It's a showdown between two of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world. Many reckon Crawford is similar in some regards to Floyd Mayweather, who is one of only two men to beat Canelo Alvarez.

However, questions remain whether Crawford can handle Alvarez's power in a much higher weight class. Former WBA and lineal featherweight champion Barry McGuigan has now laid out the blueprint for Crawford to beat Alvarez in the generational showdown.

Speaking to Betway, McGuigan said:

I think Crawford needs to go back to his old self in the sense of him being a good puncher and his timing. He is an old-fashioned fighter in the Sugar Ray Robinson style with everything being minuscule timing, he makes you fall short by just a fraction and then walks in with a counter shot. But in this fight, in order to take the sting out of Canelo’s power early on, he will have to drift in and out of punching range and not hold his feet as much.

Canelo Alvarez's latest outing against William Scull was a snooze-fest, as the Cuban refused to engage. McGuigan, however, doesn't think Crawford will do that as he takes pride in himself as a puncher. He added:

He prides himself on exchanging with you. Crawford won’t do that with Canelo early on into the fight and he will be as evasive and as elusive as he can be, because if not he will get dragged into a trench war. That wouldn’t work as effectively. When you’ve worked out Canelo is losing his power, then step your foot on the gas and exchange with him but Canelo will know what to do.

McGuigan also added that Crawford should look to walk Alvarez to his shots later in the fight. However, the Irishman recognized that both Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford are exceptional boxers.

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Apratim Banerjee
APRATIM BANERJEE

Apratim is a Boxing and Soccer reporter for On SI. He has been in the industry for five years, having also worked for The Sporting News, Sportskeeda, EssentiallySports, and more. After coming from an engineering background, he started pursuing a career in sports media. Apratim also holds an MSc. Sport Marketing degree from Loughborough University London and is a keen practitioner of social media and digital marketing. In his spare time, Apratim likes to play an array of sports and practice calisthenics. He is also an avid enthusiast of improving his martial arts skills.