Roy Jones Jr. says he questions whether Canelo Alvarez still has the hunger in him going into his fight against Terence Crawford this Saturday night, September 13. Jones Jr. states that he knows Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) is still hungry.
Can Crawford Take a Shot?
“Can Bud take a punch? I’m pretty sure he can do. We’ll have a good fight on our hands,” said Roy Jones Jr. to All The Smoke, talking about the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight. “There are several ways for Bud to win it, but one way for Canelo to lose.
The question is, can Crawford take Canelo’s punch? We know he can take punches from the last fighter he fought at 154, Israil Madrimov. We’ll see on Saturday if Crawford can take Canelo’s shots because if he can’t, it’s going to be a short night. We could see Canelo score one of his highlight reel knockouts.
Crawford’s Hunger Remains
“Bud is a champion, and says a lot. And on top of that, Bud is still hungry. Canelo, I don’t know if he has that hunger still left in him. If he was still hungry, then we’re in for a good night. If he’s not hungry, it’s going to be rough,” said Roy Jr.
Crawford is a champion at 154, not 168. Surprisingly, he hasn’t been stripped of his WBA junior middleweight title for failing to defend it in over a year since he captured it on August 3, 2024. Calling Crawford a champion means nothing because he’s a champion in a division two weight classes down.
Jones Jr. didn’t say why he thinks Canelo isn’t hungry any longer. If he weren’t, he wouldn’t have trained hard and would have likely lost to his last three opponents.
The Weight Jump Factor
“I don’t think the weight is going to be a factor at all,” said Jones Jr. “When he [Crawford] was fighting at 147, he had to boil down from 175 to 180. He’s [only] going to have to boil down to 168 now, because I’m pretty sure he went above 168 before he started training.”
The jump up two divisions in weight may not help Crawford, especially given his decision not to take warm-up fights at 160 or 168 pounds first to prepare himself. Unlike Canelo, Terence didn’t have name sparring partners. Crawford was using Steven Nelson and Alarenz Stanton. Canelo used his massive wealth to hire Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis and Yoenli Hernandez.
“I don’t think Crawford is going to stop hitting hard at 37, 38 years old,” said host Andre Ward.
“He’s not,” said Jones Jr. about his belief that Crawford won’t lose his power now that he’s turning 38.
What Jones Jr. and Ward are failing to note is that Crawford’s power wasn’t there in his move up to 154 last year on August 3, 2024, against Israil Madrimov. His punches appeared weak in comparison to Madrimov’s, and he never came close to hurting him.
Diminished Reflexes Surface
The other thing that they’re missing out on with Crawford is the diminished reflexes. He looked slower to react to punches than before, and it cost him. He was hit repeatedly by Madrimov’s right hand.
In one sequence, Madrimov landed five consecutive right hands, and Crawford didn’t block any of them. So, while his power may still be there, his reflexes show signs of deterioration. That’s age. When Roy Jr. was 38, he was trying to pick up the broken pieces of his career after having lost three consecutive fights two years earlier. Like Crawford, Jones Jr. depended on hand speed and reflexes.