Trainer Abel Sanchez predicts Canelo Alvarez will give away the first three or four rounds against Terence Crawford, but then take over the fight with his size and power to dominate the rest of the way in their clash on September 13th.
Sanchez Predicts Canelo Dominance
Sanchez says Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) will turn the fight into a sparring session, effortlessly beating the smaller, weaker, and older Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to pound out a decision.
“Crawford is a great fighter, but so is Canelo. I think their IQ is similar, except Canelo doesn’t get hit like Crawford gets hit,” said trainer Abel Sanchez to Round Eight Boxing. “Canelo is a bigger man. Not that he started out as a bigger man, but he is now a bigger man.”
Abel forgot to mention Crawford’s age. He turns 38 in September, and he looks like an old G. Crawford has aged in the last two years, and isn’t the same person that beat up and stopped the weight-drained, inactive, car crash-wrecked, and injury-depleted Errol Spence in 2023.
“He has been hit by not only Gennadiy, who is one of the biggest punchers I’ve ever seen, but he’s also been hit by Bivol, Kovalev, who is a big puncher. He’s been hit by big guys. Crawford had a hard time with a 154-pounder [Israil Madrimov], who hit him often,” said Abel about Canelo.
Alvarez has been hit by much harder punchers than the shots that Crawford will be hitting him with. If Crawford does come to fight, he’s going to need a good chin because Canelo will take advantage of his aggressiveness to counter him. Assuming Terence gets greedy in the early rounds, he’s going to get caught and knocked out.
Canelo: A “Truck” for Crawford
“So, I think no matter how much weight he puts on, and how smart he thinks he is, and how big he is, he’s going to be getting hit with a truck, and he’s not used to that,” said Abel. “I think in the beginning, just like it was with Kell Brook and Gennadiy, at the beginning, the speed and the talent will show in the fight.”
The weight that Crawford puts on for this fight is going to slow him down, making him easier to hit, and will cause him to wear down in the later rounds. He looked slow moving up to 154 last August against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov. That’s why he got hit so frequently. Jumping up an additional two divisions after packing on a lot of weight and sitting inactive for 13 months will slow Crawford down even more.
Canelo-Crawford: Sparring Session?
“I think Canelo will lose three or four rounds in the beginning, but once he starts pounding on him, as it’s been in the last six or seven fights of Canelo, after the sixth or seventh rounds, it’s a sparring session for him,” said Canelo.
It’s going to be tough for Crawford to take the big shots from Canelo without retreating, and going into survival mode like Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga, and Jermell Charlo all did against him. Crawford isn’t going to be able to jab his way to a victory. That won’t work, because Alvarez will be landing the eye-catching shots that the judges will notice.
