Dmitry Bivol is just one of two men who knows what it takes to beat Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez inside a boxing ring. He has now assessed Terence Crawford‘s chances of becoming the third.
Canelo made his second jump up to light-heavyweight to face Bivol in 2022 after defeating Sergey Kovalev three years prior. That time around he wasn’t successful, losing by unanimous decision and then dropping back down to his more comfortable super-middleweight, where he has remained undefeated since.
Enter Crawford, who last four at super-welter and is set to make the two division jump later this year if all goes as planned. Like Canelo, ‘Bud’ is a four-weight world champion and pound-for-pound star, however many in the sport feel that this particular match-up will be asking too much.
Speaking to the Ring Magazine, Bivol – who is the only man to beat Canelo other than Floyd Mayweather a decade ago – said Crawford can absolutely win, but questions remain as to the size disadvantage.
“First reaction of course it was the size of Crawford. Is it okay for him to move up two weight classes or not? But then I saw him in Dubai, maybe a month ago and I thought he’s big.
“He has very good skills. He’s one of my favourite boxers. He’s able to win this fight. But there are a lot of ‘buts’… Even not ‘buts’, a lot of things we don’t know he’ll deal with. He need to get used to the power and pressure of 168, because it’s a big difference.
“Maybe he will get used to it. How he will be feeling himself on fight day. How his training camp is going. A lot of things. But he’s able [to win]. He has a lot of skills. He’s awkward. He can use the two stances. It gives him benefits.”
The undisputed light-heavyweight champion then highlighted the mental aspect of Crawford’s preparation as well as his physical camp.
“It’s not about only getting used to the power. It’s also about being mentally ready. Because when people are not prepared mentally, they are afraid or scared, your body becomes weak. When something happens and you weren’t ready for it, we all know the feelings like the body melts.
“Mentality is very important for this fight. Even if he is one or two weight classes lower, if he’s mentally ready he will be ready to get his punches and be okay with it. He could be good.”
