Keith Thurman believes Terence Crawford saw the success Jermell Charlo had against Canelo Alvarez and will feel he can do the same if he gets the chance to fight.
Thurman claims Jermell defended well in his fight against Canelo last year on September 30, neutralizing the Mexican star’s offense. The problem was that Jermall forgot about his offense and ended up losing a wide 12 round unanimous decision. He was too focused on moving and holding on.
Can Bud follow Jermell’s Blueprint?
Old “One Time” Thurman says Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will be watching that fight and will make sure he puts more emphasis on his offense to defeat Canelo. Keith quotes Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Dmitry Bivol as two fighters who were successful against Canelo fighting the perfect fight to defeat him.
Beating Crawford won’t do anything for Canelo’s legacy because he’s a smaller, older fighter just looking for a payday, who looked very average in his debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
What Crawford Misses
- power: Crawford’s debut at 154 showed a lack of punching power, and the glaring flaw would be much worse at 168.
- Experience at 168: Crawford has never fought at super-middleweight, so he would be flying by the seat of his pants against Canelo.
- Chin: In Crawford’s fights at 135 and 140, he was buzzed by smaller fighters who didn’t have anywhere near the same power as Canelo.
- without fear: This speaks for itself. Crawford was not attached to Israil Madrimov like a shark, because he was afraid of being beaten. Against Canelo, the fear was that it would result in a hard fight involving a lot of movement. It’s a bad deal for the fans because they paid for a crooked fight.
Canelo doesn’t get credit from the fans for beating the 37-year-old Crawford because he’s an older fighter who hasn’t shown the will to move up to 168 to prove himself against the Lions, David Benavidez and David Morrell. This is just about Crawford wanting a payday to help with his retirement.
“The potential for speed, high-quality defense,” said Keith Thurman Fighthype about what Terence Crawford would bring to a fight against Canelo Alvarez. “When Canelo fought (Jermell) Charlo. In addition to the knockdown, Charlo was able to protect himself very well against Canelo’s assault.
“The only problem was while he was protecting himself, there was no offense. Seeing what, I saw the same thing. If Charlo can go like that without touching (like Crawford). Floyd, Bivol, where are the mistakes? You to get that 10 out of 10. Don’t make mistakes,” Thurman said.
It seems that Thurman never saw the Canelo vs. Jermell fight because his recollection of what happened sounds more like the stuff of fantasy. Canelo hit Jermell Charlo hard in that fight. He was hit with everything but the kitchen sink by Canelo, and that’s why he was running and holding all night. It didn’t help.
Canelo expertly cut the ring and was nailing Jermell with punches bigger than those he had scored Gennadiy Golovkin in their three fights. The lack of offense coming back from Jermell made it target practice for Canelo, who was able to charge with 100% power on every punch because there was nothing to fall back on.
The move and the clinching only protected Jermell from being eliminated. But he didn’t shut down Canelo’s offense any more than Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia. Canelo was going at Jermell all night, loading up on a single head and body shots to win a wide decision.
Crawford could only move because he didn’t have the power or size to stand up and fight Canelo. He’s not as big or strong as Jermell, and that guy wasn’t rugged enough to be competitive with Canelo.
Of course, Crawford’s focus in the Canelo fight is not to win. He is winning only by getting the massive pay fight. It’s all about the money. If Crawford was interested in defeating Canelo, he had already moved up to 168 and gained some experience fighting Benavidez, Morrell and Diego Pacheco.
