In this week’s mailbag, we tackle your thoughts on what Terence Crawford’s big win means for his career, and what the loss means for Canelo Alvarez’s.
We also discuss how Naoya Inoue looked while dominating Murodjon Akhmadaliev and what that might mean for Inoue’s future foes; whether hopes for Callum Walsh’s future should fade after his decision over Fernando Vargas Jnr; and Lewis Crocker’s rematch victory over Paddy Donovan for the IBF welterweight title.
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CRAWFORD AT LAST GETS THE CREDIT HE DESERVES
For those of us who have been arguing with the same people over and over for years who say Terence “Bud” Crawford is overrated and not that great — it feels good to see those same people finally admitting how great Crawford is.
I have never understood for one second why anyone hates on Crawford. Obviously a great talent, mean in the ring and goes in to hurt his opponents, always fun to watch, all class outside the ring and always humble. A good man who loves his kids and his wife. He deserves all the praise he gets.
-Theshotyoudontsee
David Greisman’s response: There is so much partisanship among boxing fans that when Terence Crawford was “on the wrong side of the street,” his resume was dissected and picked apart in far more brutal fashion than the kid gloves and rose-colored glasses that were sometimes utilized for other fighters on the “right side” of the street.
But it is otherwise fair to say that while Crawford was already accomplished, he hadn’t landed fights with the biggest names. He was the Ring champion at 135, undisputed at 140 and carried the knockout streak he started at junior welterweight into his title reign at 147. But being with Top Rank and its network affiliations kept him from making fights with Premier Boxing Champions’ stable. And Top Rank also never paired Crawford with Manny Pacquiao when both were within its fold.
Then came free agency. A lot of people still felt Crawford was unproven against top talent, and then he absolutely dominated and dismantled Errol Spence Jnr.
That was just two years ago. And that was just a few fights ago.
I would have been content had Crawford remained at 154lbs following his title win over Israil Madrimov last year and taken on the deep pool of talent at junior middleweight. I was not surprised that he preferred to jump up two weight classes and face Canelo at super middleweight. It was a huge payday and a huge challenge.
Crawford is still fighting at a high level at nearly 38 years old, but he has to make the most of what little time he might have left in the sport. The wins over Spence and Canelo are the pinnacle of a Hall of Fame career. He’s at last earned everyone’s respect. He might as well earn some more money before he hangs up his gloves.
It’s just a matter of whether there are any opponents who will motivate him – not that there’s ever been any doubt about Crawford’s drive. There are several contenders at 168lbs, including Hamzah Sheeraz, yet I wouldn’t be surprised if the top choices are Jermall and Jermell Charlo.
CANELO ISN’T FADED, HE JUST DODGED CERTAIN OPPONENTS
Please stop the “Canelo has lost a step” argument! Andre Ward called it a couple of years ago. Canelo has carefully been selecting his opponents for years. He would exploit those that either had power but not much ring IQ, or those who had a little ring IQ but no power.
He avoided every boxer who had power and a solid ring IQ. Canelo fought lazy and without the ability to make adjustments. He struggled against Dmitry Bivol because of this. And Crawford was the perfect opponent to expose these truths.
-Lefty0616
Lucas Ketelle’s response: Canelo has lost his enthusiasm. Canelo has become a businessman, opting for high-paying fights that he likes the matchup of. This can be seen in choices such as Jermell Charlo, John Ryder, Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga.
In the past, Canelo has shown the ability to adjust, especially in his second bout with Gennadiy Golovkin. Even against Caleb Plant, a fight he controlled the pace of, he changed his strategy late in the fight, leading to a knockout.
Canelo is a fighter who doesn’t want to be uncomfortable in a fight. Someone who is well off and doesn’t want to push to the places he could have earlier. It isn’t so much that he “lost a step” as he found comfort and no longer has the drive to push in those dark places boxing takes you to.
It also showed that Canelo was willing to accept defeat, which Crawford simply wasn’t.
This era of Canelo, between the Bivol fight and the Crawford fight, will be debated for years, but only Canelo knows the real truth about it. Keep in mind that Canelo has been fighting for a very long time, and it appears that, if nothing else, Father Time is catching up to him.
HOW CAN THIS VERSION OF NAOYA INOUE BE BEAT?
What options do guys have when facing Naoya Inoue? If you trade with him, you risk getting slept. You want to be defensive? He uses his speed and power to gradually break you down. And we see that Inoue can go the distance and box really smart.
Inoue made Murodjon “MJ” Akhmadaliev look like he never boxed a day in his life. I’m surprised Inoue didn’t go for a KO. But Inoue wanted to showcase he can go the full 12 rounds and show his defensive side. As long as Inoue remains healthy, I don’t think there's anyone who can stop him.
-SlyB33r
Jake Donovan’s response: I have to admit that Inoue’s master class performance on Sunday left me to rethink the outcome of any upcoming future fights, and one in particular.
Granted, Murodjon Akhmadaliev fights NOTHING like Junto Nakatani, nor is he even in the same pound-for-pound spectrum. But my concern about the present-day version of Inoue was his gradually becoming more defensively irresponsible (the one beautiful flaw still carried by Junto) for the sake of creating more entertaining fights.
Inoue showed the true pound-for-pound version of himself against MJ. The beauty was that it wasn’t even a risk-averse performance – just further proof that he firmly remains one of the best three fighters in the world, even if a firm No. 3 behind Terence Crawford (especially after Saturday) and Oleksandr Usyk.
I would even argue that the burden of proof is now on Nakatani to show that he can provide a new wrinkle to his already spectacular game as he enters his fourth weight division – one where its king has long ago grown very comfortable.
CALLUM WALSH WON’T BE A TOP JUNIOR MIDDLEWEIGHT
I think Callum Walsh is well-rounded, has decent pop and steady work, and also is physically big for the division. But, yeah, he’s not exactly a top 10 world-ranked contender, never mind a future world champion. I think he could have some fun fights, though, with Nikita Tszyu, Jorge Garcia Perez and Charles Conwell.
-Malvado
Lance Pugmire’s response: Walsh’s wide decision victory over Fernando Vargas Jnr in the co-feature of Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford had the misfortune of following a Fight of the Year candidate in the Christian Mbilli-Lester Martinez slugfest draw.
I agree the stage was too significant for Walsh now, but like it or not, the Irishman trained by Freddie Roach is a favored son of new TKO/Zuffa Boxing head Dana White. As the new promotion takes off next year, he will get every possible shot to stand as a headliner and to continue developing.
Knowing Walsh, he will likely be forthright in responding to the lessons of that victory and tend to the flaws that were evident. At 24 years old, the 15-0 Walsh has sufficient time to continue his progression, although being in the loaded 154lbs division is going to require some thoughtful matchmaking to allow him to do so without risking defeat.
Walsh’s promoter, Tom Loeffler, has spoken of pursuing a bout against a similarly young and still-developing WBO titleholder Xander Zayas. If they can get to that fight by late 2026, it’d be a revealing event.
LOSSES PROVE CANELO WAS A MERE MEDIA CREATION
After now handily losing two of the three biggest fights in his career, hopefully people and media can have a truthful conversation about what Canelo really is:
A pretty good fighter. Not even close to an all-time great in the ring.
Canelo lost to a small 36-year-old in Floyd Mayweather Jnr and now a small 37-year-old in Terence Crawford. Neither was really that close. Canelo was dominated by Dmitry Bivol, who was a 3-1 underdog. He wouldn’t fight David Benavidez, Jermall Charlo or Demetrius Andrade but somehow found time to fight both Liam and Callum Smith. Franchise belt champion. Clenbuterol user.
What recent middleweight all-time great could he beat? Roy Jones Jnr? No. Bernard Hopkins? No. Andre Ward? No.
He is a media creation, if there ever was one.
-NoAgendaBoxing
Owen Lewis’ response: Some quibbles with your examples aside, I tend to agree with your general point. I don’t see Canelo as the all-time great many do, though I think he deserves to be a Hall of Famer, and I wince when I read the oft-written line that he has the strongest resume of any active boxer.
I think we feel this way for different reasons, however. Crawford and Mayweather are both all-time greats, and while Bivol isn’t quite as accomplished as those two, he is significantly bigger than Canelo. I don’t fault Canelo for losing to any of them, even if I believe Bivol was a far trickier operator than he bargained for and Canelo’s ambitions in taking the fight were opportunistic as much as “daring to be great.”
Where I find issue in Canelo’s resume is in the asterisks. He’s taken on several fighters when they were past their primes, despite having the opportunity to fight them earlier. His avoidance of David Benavidez, his obvious No. 1 contender over much of the past few years, is as blatant a duck as I’ve seen from a top fighter. (I also think that Benavidez would have beaten him.) His win in his rematch with Gennadiy Golovkin is widely considered the best victory of his career…but it’s rarely mentioned anymore that at the time, barely any media members scored it for him.
And yes, Canelo tested positive for clenbuterol months prior, which also tends to go unsaid nowadays. I remain critical of the way he managed that trilogy, particularly waiting until Golovkin was past his best before taking the first fight.
Oleksandr Usyk, Crawford, and Naoya Inoue simply don’t offer as many opportunities to nitpick their resume. Hell, they’ve hardly been in any controversial fights at all – Usyk has had several close fights, but popular opinion is that he deserved to win them all. They’ve taken on audacious challenges without strings attached, then left no doubt in the ring. I believe all three should be ranked above Canelo historically.
As for the idea that Canelo is a media creation? I wouldn’t go that far, because his career is genuinely impressive, but his blend of heritage and hair color certainly accelerated his path to fame. I’ve sometimes found it frustrating what Canelo has elected to do with his star power – like his run of opponents between the Bivol and Crawford fights – and that other, sometimes better fighters, don’t have the same privilege.
I spoke the other day to Stephen “Breadman” Edwards, who believes Canelo is an all-time great. “I think Canelo’s a hell of a fighter,” he told me. “I kind of have empathy when a guy loses a fight like this, because there has to be a loser and winner, unless it’s a draw, and you take a lot of heat from the public and things like that. But unfortunately for Canelo, I think his legacy does drop down slightly.”
That’s a completely fair assessment. Canelo’s legacy doesn’t necessarily drop in my eyes after this fight, but that’s because I had it a bit lower than most to begin with.
CANELO NEVER REALLY ANSWERED THE QUESTION ABOUT A REMATCH
He said it was great to share a ring with him, but didn’t say he wanted a rematch. I think they both retire. Canelo should probably go to 160 and win some titles. Crawford can walk away and maybe do one last fight in Omaha for his hometown against a less risky fighter. He’s about to be 38. I’d hate to see him get old in the ring.
-UniqueBoxing
Declan Warrington’s response: While I agree entirely that Crawford should retire, my belief is that the likeliest outcome is that they both fight again. On account of how little punishment Crawford’s taken – and the reality that he’s the least active of the world’s very best fighters – I don’t think there’s a substantial risk of him suddenly ageing in his next fight or two, but I don’t see a victory in his future as impressive as the one he’s just recorded so, unless he has a homecoming “send off”, which we could all appreciate, he’ll never have a better time to bow out.
The most appealing fights for Alvarez are against the lower-profile contenders at 168lbs that he’s transparently had minimal interest in for years. He’s even less likely to accept those fights now. But he remains such a popular figure that he can continue to earn the biggest of purses and, whoever his future fight or fights come against, given I believe his hunger’s been largely absent for years – his performance against Dmitry Bivol in 2022 certainly showed that – the likelihood that he wants that money and doesn’t want to bow out on a defeat means we’ll be hearing about his likely next opponent soon enough.
Either way, I don’t think he should go anywhere near 160lbs. I appear to be in the minority in considering him at his very best there, but he’s twice fought at 175lbs since his most recent fight at middleweight. He’s also 35. The last thing the body of a fighter that’s endured 68 fights needs is a struggle to make a weight it hasn’t made for years before entering its 69th. If they were on vaguely positive terms, Oscar De La Hoya could be among the first to tell him why.
CROCKER-DONOVAN II WAS A FAIR VERDICT
This felt like a draw to me. Paddy Donovan was hitting a lot of gloves and got knocked down twice by the same shot and STILL kept walking into it. He finally timed it and was able to better absorb it and turn it up in the last few rounds, but Lewis Crocker landed cleaner shots more often, plus the knockdowns. Neither guy feels like championship material to me. Yay IBF.
-Joseph
Tris Dixon’s response: I had it 114-113 for Donovan: 7-4-1 in rounds, with the two knockdowns. That was from ringside. Crazy to think they’ve fought 20 rounds, Crocker has won about five and yet he’s 2-0. What a mad sport.
As far as where they go next, I actually think both are capable of presenting good fighters with problems. But whatever Crocker does now, there will never be a moment that means so much to him. It was absolutely his Everest.
Want to be featured in the mailbag? Comment or ask a question in the comments section below. Submissions may be edited for length and clarity. We also may select readers’ comments from other BoxingScene stories.
