Terence Crawford is gearing up for the toughest test of his professional career.
The 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska will do battle with Mexican icon Canelo Alvarez on Saturday September 13 at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Having spent his recent years campaigning at welterweight before having one fight a super-welterweight, Crawford will make the jump up to super-middleweight ahead of his showdown with Canelo, as he bids to become the undisputed champion at 168lbs.
Should he be victorious in September, ‘Bud’ will write his name into the boxing history books by becoming the first male fighter to win an undisputed championship in three divisions, having already accomplished this feat at super-lightweight and welterweight. He would also be just the third man to beat Alvarez in 68 fights after Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol.
However, speaking on The G.O.A.T.S Podcast, Crawford revealed he is convinced that the Mexican star should have suffered at least one more.
“Canelo got a great resume, I’m not going to take it away from him. He’s fought a lot of great champions but at the age that he fought them in, they was already on a decline, some of them, and when he didn’t you see what happened, he fought Lara and I thought Lara beat him, he fought Mayweather, you see what happened? He fought Bivol when he went up and tried to be great like I’m doing and he came up short, when he fought my boy from Texas they gave him problems but it is what it is, I got the style, I got the skills, I got the heart and I’m not going to sit around and play no games with Canelo because he’s not going to play no games with me.”
Canelo vs Erislandy Lara fight took place on July 12, 2014 and was a close and tactical 12-round affair. Lara, a slick Cuban boxer, used a lot of movement and landed clean jabs, trying to avoid exchanges. Canelo, on the other hand, was more aggressive, going to the body and pressing the action.
The fight was controversial because it was hard to judge – Lara landed cleaner punches, but Canelo was more active. In the end, Canelo won by split decision, but many fans and analysts were divided on who really deserved the victory.
