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Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford: Will the extra weight help or hinder American's performance?
In gutting the welterweight division as the undisputed king at 147 pounds, Terence Crawford stepped up to claim a junior middleweight world title last summer.
In daring to be the greatest of this era now, Crawford moves up an additional 14 pounds to challenge for Canelo Alvarez’ undisputed super middleweight crown Saturday night in Las Vegas.
One burning question surrounding Crawford’s climb up is whether he could withstand Alvarez’ power at 168 pounds. Another question is will the extra weight help or hinder Crawford’s performance?
To that, we are inclined to lean toward the former that Crawford’s chiseled frame will do more to help than hurt him with the massive undertaking of defeating Alvarez.
It has been roughly a year since Crawford defeated Madrimov and the pound-for-pound great has taken his time to gradually build the muscle toward being a super middleweight. This has not been a fighter who has blown up in weight only to need a severe pounds cut closer to the bout.
No, Crawford has been on a regimen to get here and sparring sessions should have only prepared him more for the task at hand.
Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. took just shy of six months to build himself up from light heavyweight to heavyweight, soundly outpointing John Ruiz in March 2003 to win the WBA heavyweight world title. In speaking with Ring Magazine last month, Jones dismissed the notion of the extra weight being an issue in Saturday night’s bout.
“Terence did like I did as a heavyweight, he bulked up to the weight,” Jones said. “He’s been dealing with super middles and light heavyweights in training. If you could deal with them in training, you could deal with them in the fight, so the weight should not even be an issue.”
If anything, the extra muscle should allow ‘Bud’ to sit on his punches even more, making his power shots even more dangerous for Alvarez to deal with.
Remember, prior to the points win over Madrimov, Crawford was riding an 11-fight knockout streak including a decimation of Errol Spence Jr. in July 2023. Entering that bout, many thought Spence, who walked around as a middleweight or higher, was just too big for Crawford to handle and ‘Bud’ issued a lopsided beating on him.
While we will find out if the extra muscle fatigues Crawford if Alvarez drags him into deep waters during this fight, we are expecting the extra mass to help ‘Bud’ amplify his sweet science skills.
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