Canelo failed to adapt, again!
Terence “Bud” Crawford defeated Saul “Canelo” Alvarez in a way that no one fathomed; even his fanatics that said he would kill Canelo were a little shocked at the outclassing. He didn’t just beat Canelo, he dismantled him and made him seem average at best.
To take it a little further: Crawford took Canelo from being the main villain to a henchman with a few talking spots, you know “Boss, sorry to interrupt but you’re going to wanna take this call!” Or “Boss, the girl got away!”
Alvarez is definitely not as good as he was at his peak, but he is still head and shoulders above a lot of fighters on this level, so any type of win would’ve been huge, but to do it in the fashion that Crawford did it, makes the win worthy of greatness talk.
It also makes an argument that Canelo is more one dimensional than previously thought because he has been faced with this type of chess match at least 4 times in his career (Crawford, Bivol, Lara, Mayweather) and he failed to adapt all 4 times and lost 3 of them. He doesn’t figure out high boxing IQ opponents, he just fights harder hoping to land a fight-changing punch.
The way he has been perceived over the years has been a boxer puncher with strong ring generalship, but I don’t think that is an accurate assessment because when he gets into these types of fights he leans more towards a puncher than a boxer.
You can’t take anything away from what Canelo has accomplished and he will go down as a legend, rightfully so, but if I’m part of his decision-making team, I would stay away from fights like this unless the money outweighs another defeat, which probably does at this point in his career.
