There is a little under a month to go now until we see modern greats Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford engage in what just might prove to be both the biggest and the best fight of the year.
One man who sure knows his boxing, and has an opinion and an insight that is always worth hearing, is former champ turned trainer Andy Lee. And Lee, who spoke with The Ring, says we should believe the hype when it comes to this fight, one in which Crawford, 41-0(31) will go for real greatness in challenging the bigger, some say stronger unified super-middleweight king.
Andy Lee’s Canelo vs. Crawford Prediction
Lee went as far as to say of the September 13 fight that will go down in Las Vegas that it “should be up there with the best fights we can remember.”
Well, fight fans all over the world certainly do remember some great ones, and if Canelo-Crawford does rank right up there with them in the magic stakes, the sport will get another boost as a result. Will the September 13 fight compare with modern-day epics such as Sugar Ray Leonard-Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Julio Cesar Chavez-Meldrick Taylor, Bernard Hopkins-Felix Trinidad (a one-sided thrashing of a great fight performance), Oscar De La Hoya-Ike Quartey, or even Hagler-Thomas Hearns?
If so, we’ll all be happy, whoever wins.
Andy Lee on Canelo-Crawford’s Even Match
Lee says Canelo and “Bud” are evenly matched in skill and that Crawford, who won his first world title down at 135 pounds, has “filled out” and is no longer significantly smaller than the Mexican star. Lee also points out how we should keep an eye on the “tricks” both fighters have at their disposal and can be expected to bring out and use on the night.
“What a fight,” Lee said of Canelo-Crawford. “It’s very hard to pick a winner. No one really knows the skill, competitiveness, and ringcraft of Crawford. You can say the same things about Canelo. When you see how skilful both fighters are, the tricks they have and how they fight, it should be up there with the best fights we can remember.”
Here’s hoping.
It’s interesting how opinions have shifted as far as Canelo, 63-2-2(39), taking on Crawford goes. Rewind to when the fight was first announced, and so many people criticised it as a veritable mismatch.
Not any longer.