Promoter Eddie Hearn says Terence Crawford must make his fight against Canelo Alvarez a “little bit of a stinker” on September 12th so that he can win. Hearn says that with Canelo’s size advantage, it will be tough for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to win unless he boxes him.
Fans won’t be happy if Crawford chooses to use a safety-first style to get the victory, because they’ll be paying to see the fight on PPV, thinking it will be entertaining. After the disappointing Times Square card on DAZN PPV, with three dull fights on the main card, fans will want more value for their money spent.
Crawford running around the ring for 12 rounds will anger fans, making them feel ripped off. It’s already a weird situation as it is with Crawford moving up two divisions, 14 lbs to challenge Canelo for his undisputed super middleweight championship without any experience in the weight class.
This shouldn’t be allowed to happen if boxing were governed correctly. Fighters should be required to compete in the divisions they’re challenging for a world title and earn a title shot by beating the contenders.
Hearn’s “Stinker” Strategy
“Canelo just wants to get paid. Don’t get me wrong. He wants to be in great in great fights. He got a little bit of criticism from the Scull fight. ‘Oh, he didn’t do this. He didn’t do that,'” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV about Canelo Alvarez. “He also walked out of there without hardly getting hit, going, ‘I’ve just copped X million. Thank you very much.'”
Scull was moving too much for Canelo to sustain any damage. However, Canelo would have been hit a lot more and marked up if he’d taken risks instead of being so tentative. Compared to some of Alvarez’s fights in the past, he looked tentative to engage after being caught with some sharp counters from the faster and surprisingly powerful Scull.
“The Crawford fight will obviously be very different,” said Hearn.” It’s a tremendous fight. Bud has so much self-belief, and dare I say, Bud has got to make it a bit of a sinker. It won’t be anything like the Scull fight, but you know Canelo doesn’t like movers. Bud has got to stay out of trouble.”
Crawford probably will choose to box Canelo, because he wants to win. He knows that all he needs to do is defeat Canelo in any fashion, and he’ll get a rematch and make another $100 million. That’s obviously what Terence and his trainer, Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre, are thinking about. They want to win. Even if they make it ugly, they’ll get a rematch and get a second payday.
A “Fascinating” Matchup?
“It’s a fascinating matchup between two pound-for-pound great fighters. I’ve always leaned toward Canelo Alvarez because of the size advantage, but he’s getting on. He doesn’t like movers. So, it’s going to be interesting,” said Hearn.
I don’t know, I would call Canelo-Crawford “fascinating.” It’s interesting that Turki Alalshikh wanted this fight so badly, because Canelo has made it clear from day one that he’s not excited about it. It’s a no-win type of fight for him.
He gains nothing other than the money. Crawford has never fought at 168, and won’t stay in the weight class unless he gets a rematch. If Turki had insisted that Crawford first fight David Benavidez or David Morrell to prove himself at super middleweight, fans would be excited about this. Otherwise, it’s just another one of his novelty fights, like using Francis Ngannou as the opponent for Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua with no real boxing experience. He gave Fury problems, but only because he was overrated and over the hill.