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Crawford’s willingness to go up to fight Canelo at 168 has me thinking 2 things.
1. Crawford sees an aging, declining fighter, a fighter who is an old 33 years old, and will be an even older 34 year old, and a fighter who’s best is behind him. Crawford is smart, he chooses his opponents at the right time. He completely missed fighting the best 147 fighters by signing with TR twice. He came out and fought a retiring Porter as well as a Spence coming off a car accident and broken retina. Damaged goods. Canelo has a well publicized wrist injury that will probably change his power for the rest of his career. Canelo himself said his wrist bothered him too much to KO Ryder and GGG, as well as putting good power in his punches vs Bivol. Crawford surely sees all of this and is willing to take that “risk” for his biggest payday ever.
2. Crawford sees a fighter of his height or an inch shorter, and a fighter who’s walk-around weight isn’t too far off his weight, no matter what anyone says…no matter if Canelo fought at 175 and Crawford at 147. He knows he’s not going to face a 200lb, 6’1” fighter squeezing down to 168. No different than when Dwight Qawi fought at 175 and let’s say just an example, SRL decided to move up to 175 and try his luck vs Qawi (just fantasy). SRL would likely not be too concerned about Qawi’s “size advantage”. Also, let’s not act like Canelo is ripped at 175, dude looks soft in the midsection and you can see the extra fat on him compared to his MW days. And lastly…the payday. So he doesn’t see it as that big of a risk and also likes the payday.
1. Crawford sees an aging, declining fighter, a fighter who is an old 33 years old, and will be an even older 34 year old, and a fighter who’s best is behind him. Crawford is smart, he chooses his opponents at the right time. He completely missed fighting the best 147 fighters by signing with TR twice. He came out and fought a retiring Porter as well as a Spence coming off a car accident and broken retina. Damaged goods. Canelo has a well publicized wrist injury that will probably change his power for the rest of his career. Canelo himself said his wrist bothered him too much to KO Ryder and GGG, as well as putting good power in his punches vs Bivol. Crawford surely sees all of this and is willing to take that “risk” for his biggest payday ever.
2. Crawford sees a fighter of his height or an inch shorter, and a fighter who’s walk-around weight isn’t too far off his weight, no matter what anyone says…no matter if Canelo fought at 175 and Crawford at 147. He knows he’s not going to face a 200lb, 6’1” fighter squeezing down to 168. No different than when Dwight Qawi fought at 175 and let’s say just an example, SRL decided to move up to 175 and try his luck vs Qawi (just fantasy). SRL would likely not be too concerned about Qawi’s “size advantage”. Also, let’s not act like Canelo is ripped at 175, dude looks soft in the midsection and you can see the extra fat on him compared to his MW days. And lastly…the payday. So he doesn’t see it as that big of a risk and also likes the payday.
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