Bob Arum has recently weighed in on Terence Crawford’s chances against Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, switching his original prediction for the mega fight.
Crawford will jump up two divisions from his last outing to challenge for Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight crown. The Mexican has never been beaten at the weight, only losing to Floyd Mayweather earlier in his campaign and Dmitry Bivol up at light-heavyweight.
Initially, the veteran promoter told Fight Hub TV that he could not see by a Canelo win.
“I think Canelo wipes the floor with him. I love Crawford, I told you when he was fighting Spence that he would beat the hell out of him.
“But Canelo is a different proposition. It’s an interesting fight, but I think there’s only one winner. Canelo is used to fighting at a particular level and I don’t think that Terence can hurt Canelo, but Canelo can hurt Terence.”
Around eighteen months later and, having watched Canelo Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga and William Scull, Arum now completely backs the American. He told the Ring Magazine that the two-weight undisputed champ could even be the first man to score an early finish against Alvarez.
“I think Crawford will win a wide decision. It’ll either be a knockout or a wide decision, more likely a wide decision because Canelo is gonna go into a shell. People don’t realize how far back Canelo has gone. It wasn’t just the last fight [with William Scull], but the fights before then.
“Crawford has been fighting better fighters and he has the tools to beat Canelo. The one big asset that Crawford has, that these fighters don’t know how to deal with, is Crawford is completely ambidextrous. So, they’ll have Canelo sparring with right-handed sparring partners to get ready for the fight. And Crawford might start out fighting right-handed, but he’s gonna end up fighting him as a southpaw and Canelo’s not gonna know how to handle that.”
Fans don’t have long to find out, with the pair set to face off on September 13 at the Allegiant Stadium, Las Vegas, and streamed live on Netflix.
