Abel Sanchez has made a bold prediction for the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight.
Canelo defends his undisputed super-middleweight crown against Crawford at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on September 13, with Crawford moving up two weight divisions.
Top trainer Sanchez knows Canelo extremely well, having been in the corner with Gennady Golovkin during his trilogy with the Mexican superstar, which ended with a draw and Alvarez winning twice.
With that in mind, Sanchez has broken down the clash against Crawforf whilst speaking to The Ring, beginning with the issue surrounding weight.
“Terence Crawford is a great fighter, but that’s why we have weight divisions. Canelo has proven as he has risen in the weights, he’s dealt with the best in his weight divisions that he’s at now. He fought Bivol and Bivol couldn’t hurt him. He fought my guy and my guy couldn’t hurt him in two fights, the third fight I wouldn’t even count as a fight.
“To have a guy come up from 147lbs in such a short period of time, I’m not saying he couldn’t have done it, if he’d have taken 3 or 4 years like Canelo did and built up not only his strength but his bulk in the correct way, he would have had a better chance, but to do it in the 14/15 months he’s done it in, it’s going to he difficult for him.”
Sanchez then broke down the fight itself, likening it to when his fighter Golovkin met Kell Brook.
“It’s a tough fight in the first three or four rounds because of his speed, just like when we took Golovkin to fight Kell Brook.
“Kell was a welterweight so a bit faster and quicker at the beginning, but once Canelo assimilates the speed and assimilates the movement, and Crawford will be a lot slower because of the weight also, once he does that it will be a sparring session for Canelo, as it is in most of his last four or five fights, after the 5th or 6th round it seems like a sparring session and him doing whatever he wants.”
If Canelo is victorious against Crawford, his next fight could see him take on a man he has wanted to face for a number of years since losing in their first encounter: Dmitry Bivol.
