Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez was one of the many tuning into Terence Crawford‘s victory against Israil Madrimov.
The 36-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska made his debut at super-welterweight against Madrimov, who stepped through the ropes with just 11 professional fights under his belt but an impressive amateur career and an unorthodox style that has given previous opponents nightmares.
There were flashes of ‘Bud’s brilliance throughout but those were punctuated by success on Madrimov’s part. In the end, the back and forth affair was given unanimously to the American with the scores reading 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113.
Post-fight, Madrimov’s promoter Eddie Hearn took serious issue with the judges’ cards, feeling his man deserved a much fairer shake and saying Crawford didn’t do enough to snatch the belt.
Canelo – who is set to defend his unified super-middleweight belts against Edgar Berlanga on September 14 – appears to agree. He told FightHype that he believes Crawford lost, or only scraped a draw.
“I think he knows why there’s weight classes there, right? He make a good fight, but for me I think he lost the fight. Or draw. It could have been the other side.”
With the win, ‘Bud’ joins Canelo as a four-division world champion and moves one step closer to making a fight between the two happen.
