My Personal Thoughts (a.k.a "my opinion) On Alvarez vs Crawford

[Cypocryphy]

Going into this fight, I picked Canelo to stop Crawford with a body shot in the second half of the fight. I thought that (and I was right) Canelo would invest in the body because Crawford would be moving around the ring. I thought this because I saw all the muscle Crawford packed on, and historically, that's a recipe for gassing out fast. Move up in weight multiple division, pack on muscle, and eventually it looks as if the fighter has lead weights on his feet and starts to drop his guard. I also thought that Bud wouldn't be able to get the respect of Canelo with is power and that Canelo's punches would hurt. So as a result of the outcome, I have concluded that sports science has evolved to such a degree that they are now able lot mitigate many of the negative side effects of gaining weight and muscle to fight in higher weight divisions. Those guys at SNAC know exactly what they are doing. I wonder how much they make from each fighter. SNAC probably is making a lot of money because most of their fighters do very well.

Also, it was apparent to me that with Bud was able to take those punches from Canelo better than I imagined. He took them like a champ. Never saw him hurt and never saw him slow down. That was shocking to me. I found that very surprising. I was not expecting that.

However, the biggest advantage Crawford had was his speed. He was the faster boxer. His punches were much faster than I think Canleo was expecting because he struggled to time Crawford correctly. We saw Canelo invest in the body with a left hook because of Crawford's southpaw stance. And then we saw Crawford make an adjustment so that every time Canelo went to the body, Crawford would throw out a combination, usually a four piece. The combinations took Canelo's ability to counter away, forcing him to guard and weather the flurries. Canelo had no answer to that. In the past, he would slip those punches or step off (look at Danny Jacobs who did the same thing), but here, Canelo just couldn't get out of the way. It was Crawford's speed, which is always the advantage the smaller fighter (or fighter moving up) has when coming up in weight. Fighters coming up in weight usually lose the power advantage but gain the speed advantage, and either Canelo has fully adapted to super middleweight and is NOW officially a middle weight boxer or he's just gotten older and slower. I think it's a combination of both, because a younger Canelo would have made this fight look different. Michael Montero made the point on how Canelo, albeit younger, has much more miles on the speedometer than Crawford, the older figure (although there's not much difference between 35 and 37 in all honesty).

My big lesson from this fight is how sports science has changed the game, and how companies like SNAC are enabling fighters to stay competitive for longer and allowing for jumps in weight divisions. In the past, it was much harder to move around weight divisions than it is now, without the help of stepping outside of what is legal.

It will be interesting on what happens now. I think that Crawford will try for another big fight, and Canelo will have a comeback fight. But I wouldn't be surprised if both fighters retire next year. I know there are some plans in the works, but I think Canelo is going to check out now.

[Real King Kong]

I didn't follow the build up at all, but once I saw they were basically the same size, I felt like Crawford was gonna win. Good selection of opponent to move up that much for really. Huge notoriety, same height, no reach advantage and well into the back half of his career.
As for the fight, I feel like Canelo was boxing on even terms but seemed to get frustrated quick. He became a plodder throwing everything hard trying to impose himself too much and seemed to forget about using his boxing ability and great defense/counter punching. That played right into Crawford's hands. Once Crawford felt like Canelo wasn't hurting him, he felt comfortable getting in exchanges and letting his speed and superior craft get the better of it.
Not sure if others have addressed this but, what about the question of peds? Crawford goes from being the smaller man at 154 to being the same size as Canelo at 168 without diminished speed or stamina at 38? Fair question with all the accusations levelled against Pacquiao, Canelo and other fighters as they moved up.

[SouthpawRight]

Didn’t Saul sign a 4 fight deal with Turki

I could see him being pressured to pass the Mexican boxingntorch to Diego if not Benavidez

[Cypocryphy]

I didn't follow the build up at all, but once I saw they were basically the same size, I felt like Crawford was gonna win. Good selection of opponent to move up that much for really. Huge notoriety, same height, no reach advantage and well into the back half of his career.
As for the fight, I feel like Canelo was boxing on even terms but seemed to get frustrated quick. He became a plodder throwing everything hard trying to impose himself too much and seemed to forget about using his boxing ability and great defense/counter punching. That played right into Crawford's hands. Once Crawford felt like Canelo wasn't hurting him, he felt comfortable getting in exchanges and letting his speed and superior craft get the better of it.
Not sure if others have addressed this but, what about the question of peds? Crawford goes from being the smaller man at 154 to being the same size as Canelo at 168 without diminished speed or stamina at 38? Fair question with all the accusations levelled against Pacquiao, Canelo and other fighters as they moved up.

Yeah. That's a great question. I can't throw out accusations because I just don't know. The science behind it, using specialists in the field, to gain or lose weight has changed how division hopping works now. We see guys who are huge shrink down to weights no one in the past would have been able to fight at. And likewise, we see guys move up and become competitive. Eventually division hopping takes its toll, for sure, but I've never seen anything like this before without the help of peds. I'm not saying Crawford is taking peds, not at all. But if I recall, Roy Jones was using peds when he was jumping around weight classes. It just seems now that the technology behind weight gain, rehydration, etc, has advanced to enable these types of fights.

Also, everyone knows that Canelo is not a legit 35 year old boxer. He's been fighting professional fights since he was just a kid. Crawford, due to his perpetual lack of activity, has preserved himself. I think that goes a long way to understanding how this fight turned out.

It also should be worth stating that styles make fights, and again we see that when you make Canelo the aggressor in the fight, he doesn't do as well as when the other guy is coming forward. Then you add the fact that Canelo was throwing everything hard, while Bud was just touching him for most of the fight. When you throw everything hard, you tire much faster, and that's what we saw in the back half. Where I thought Bud would tire, it was Canelo (which is known to do). So I think stylistically, this was a bad match up for Canelo. He's never been great at cutting the ring off. He's okay at it but not great. Golovkin is an example of someone who was great at cutting off the ring. Julio Cesar Chavez was great at cutting off the ring too. Canelo, not so much.

I think a style that Crawford struggles with is when you have a boxer with a strong amateur pedigree, especially Eastern Europe, which still has the best amateur program. This is why I think Crawford struggled with Madrimov. Madrimov knows how to fight someone very technical like Bud. And for the record, I had Madrimov beating Crawford by two rounds.

So there were a lot of factors at play in this fight, and one of those was that Crawford defied biology and made a clean and healthy jump up in weight. SNAC earned its money from this fight in my opinion.

[Cypocryphy]

Didn’t Saul sign a 4 fight deal with Turki

I could see him being pressured to pass the Mexican boxingntorch to Diego if not Benavidez

Was it four!! I thought it was just three. I suppose we'll see. I don't know what the contract is like, but maybe if he retires, he can get out of it. It's really hard for me to see Canelo fight three or four more times. I just don't see what motivation he has because he's already done everything. I just don't see the point. He's arguably the wealthiest boxer on the planet. He has zero reason to continue fighting, and when I boxer has no reason to fight anymore, it's a good time to retire.

[SouthpawRight]

Was it four!! I thought it was just three. I suppose we'll see. I don't know what the contract is like, but maybe if he retires, he can get out of it. It's really hard for me to see Canelo fight three or four more times. I just don't see what motivation he has because he's already done everything. I just don't see the point. He's arguably the wealthiest boxer on the planet. He has zero reason to continue fighting, and when I boxer has no reason to fight anymore, it's a good time to retire.

yeah realistically I’d have him fight 2 more

a light touch opponent to rehab

Then Diego or Benavidez to put the Mexican boxing torch in good hands

[Real King Kong]

Yeah. That's a great question. I can't throw out accusations because I just don't know. The science behind it, using specialists in the field, to gain or lose weight has changed how division hopping works now. We see guys who are huge shrink down to weights no one in the past would have been able to fight at. And likewise, we see guys move up and become competitive. Eventually division hopping takes its toll, for sure, but I've never seen anything like this before without the help of peds. I'm not saying Crawford is taking peds, not at all. But if I recall, Roy Jones was using peds when he was jumping around weight classes. It just seems now that the technology behind weight gain, rehydration, etc, has advanced to enable these types of fights.

Also, everyone knows that Canelo is not a legit 35 year old boxer. He's been fighting professional fights since he was just a kid. Crawford, due to his perpetual lack of activity, has preserved himself. I think that goes a long way to understanding how this fight turned out.

It also should be worth stating that styles make fights, and again we see that when you make Canelo the aggressor in the fight, he doesn't do as well as when the other guy is coming forward. Then you add the fact that Canelo was throwing everything hard, while Bud was just touching him for most of the fight. When you throw everything hard, you tire much faster, and that's what we saw in the back half. Where I thought Bud would tire, it was Canelo (which is known to do). So I think stylistically, this was a bad match up for Canelo. He's never been great at cutting the ring off. He's okay at it but not great. Golovkin is an example of someone who was great at cutting off the ring. Julio Cesar Chavez was great at cutting off the ring too. Canelo, not so much.

I think a style that Crawford struggles with is when you have a boxer with a strong amateur pedigree, especially Eastern Europe, which still has the best amateur program. This is why I think Crawford struggled with Madrimov. Madrimov knows how to fight someone very technical like Bud. And for the record, I had Madrimov beating Crawford by two rounds.

So there were a lot of factors at play in this fight, and one of those was that Crawford defied biology and made a clean and healthy jump up in weight. SNAC earned its money from this fight in my opinion.

Yea Canelo is a flat footed plodder for the most part, which is why counter punching suits him. His tendency to throw everything hard works against him. He went to that way too early imo. He didn't even give his boxing a chance, he just became a one dimensional plodder without much variation in his punches. He probably thought he would break Crawford down with shots to the arms, chest, body etc, but it didn't work and made him easier to hit. There was no plan B or C...

[RockyKO]

Yeah, like I said earlier, my only question was is Crawford could move around at 168. I was fairly convince that he would be fine and his foot work, hand speed, and ring generalship was going to be too much for a fading superstar. Canelo didn't make many adjustments and kept landing hard body shots but could never follow up. Towards the end of the fight he was finally landing some shots on Buds face but it was too late. The fight went how I thought it would, and I actually gave it 118-110 for Bud, but I'll rewatch it to see if I missed anything because the judges had it much closer than me.

[RockyKO]

Yeah, like I said earlier, my only question was is Crawford could move around at 168. I was fairly convince that he would be fine and his foot work, hand speed, and ring generalship was going to be too much for a fading superstar. Canelo didn't make many adjustments and kept landing hard body shots but could never follow up. Towards the end of the fight he was finally landing some shots on Buds face but it was too late. The fight went how I thought it would, and I actually gave it 118-110 for Bud, but I'll rewatch it to see if I missed anything because the judges had it much closer than me.

Crawford also an excellent job with head movement, punch and rotating, then circling around to avoid Canelo's punches. I wouldn't say it was a masterclass performance by any stretch of the imagination but I give him an A. The fact that Alvarez kept loading up for big shots and ware himself out gave Bud the opportunity to get in his grill and land combinations.