Glove2Face

Tomorrow, September 13th, Terence “Bud” Crawford (41W-0L-0D, 31KO’s) will climb in the ring against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (63W-2L-2D, 39KO’s) in what is being considered one of the greatest matchups in recent history.

Crawford decided to move up 2 weight classes (154lbs – 168lbs) to challenge for the undisputed super middleweight title, and has a tall order to finish the mission, but can he pull it off?

Crawford is the underdog in this fight, and rightfully so, but I had to ask myself what does he need to do to win this fight and how realistic is it that he can pull it off, and once I looked closer I can see that he is more than capable of leaving Las Vegas as the NEW champ, but he’ll have to dig deeper than he ever has in his career.

For Crawford to win he will have to take a page out of Floyd Mayweather and/or Dmitry Bivol’s books to pull it off. He’ll need to:

1) Lead with the jab Canelo needs to walk forward and a jab in his face will keep him from doing that and it’ll keep him on defense longer.

2) Out work Canelo And Attack Often The more punches Canelo has to block, dodge, or bob and weave, the less he’ll have time to throw his own punches.

3) Throw Combinations One or two punches will not keep Canelo from walking Terence down and eventually knocking him out.

4) Go to the body Canelo was tired at the end of the Bivol fight so going to the body will gradually take a toll on him.

4) Start Early Canelo usually starts slow, so Terence needs to pocket the earlier rounds because it’s going to be a long night!

This fight has all the ingredients of a modern-day Sugar Ray Leonard vs Marvelous Marvin Hagler, but if it lives up to the hype remain to be seen.

The main things Crawford has going for him is his speed, ring IQ, he’s a southpaw, which Canelo has had trouble with in the past, Erislandy Lara and Austin Trout are both southpaws and both fights were competitive, with some believing Lara should’ve won the decision, and many saying Trout would’ve won the fight if he wasn’t knocked down.

This is going to be a war and if anyone is going to be knocked out, it’ll be Crawford, so his best bet is to be ready for 12 rounds and hope for a fair decision at the end.

So, I’m now sitting here looking at everything Crawford has to do to win this fight, the 2-division leap in weight he made, his last fight against Israil Madrimov, which he seemed to struggle with at times, and the ring-generalship of Canelo, brings me to my prediction…

I think Crawford does look good in the earlier rounds, and will show glimpses of brilliancy, like Caleb Plant in his fight against Canelo, and I see it ending in the same way, Canelo via late knockout, round 9 or 10.

Terence has all the abilities to pull this out, but he’ll have to pitch a shutout to win and if he fights like he did against Madrimov, this fight will end even earlier.

There are question marks surrounding how Crawford will perform at this higher weight, which could help or hinder, so working with the info I have, I have to pick Canelo, even though I’m a sucker for underdog stories.

I’ll be rooting for the underdog, although I don’t see him holding up for the full 12 rounds, but if he lands something huge early, he will definitely tweak the course of the fight in his favor.