A former rival of Terence Crawford has spoken out ahead of the American’s ‘super-fight’ with Canelo Alvarez next month.
‘Bud’ Crawford is set to make his first appearance at 168lbs when he clashes with the Mexican icon, having spent the recent years of his superb professional career campaigning at welterweight where he became undisputed champion with a victory over Errol Spence Jr in July of 2023. His one fight since saw him move up to super-welterweight and beat Israel Madrimov.
As for Canelo, the 35-year-old from Guadalajara has proved himself to be a dominant force at super-middleweight since making the jump up in weight back in 2018, reigning as the undisputed champion on two occasions whilst racking up victories over the likes of Jaime Munguia, Callum Smith and Gennady Golovkin.
One fighter that has been on the receiving end of ‘Bud’ Crawford’s punching power is Egidijus Kavaliauskas, known more commonly as ‘Mean Machine’. who suffered a ninth round stoppage defeat to the pound-for-pound great back in 2019.
Kavaliauskas did have his own success, however, landing a shot that cause Crawford to touch the canvas, but it was controversially ruled a slip rather than a knockdown.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, ‘Mean Machine’ admitted that whilst he initially thought Canelo would be ‘too big’ for Crawford, he has now given his backing to his former rival who he believes is ‘too smart’ for the Mexican great.
“Even after I fought Crawford I became his fan, he’s an amazing boxer, so when it was rumours, I’m like ‘Oh it’s not good for Crawford, Canelo is too big.’ Right now like my position changed.
“I think Crawford is too fast and too smart for Canelo. I’m not taking nothing from Canelo but the way you see ‘oh he’s too big’, when you see Usyk fights and what Usyk did to the big guys like Joshua and Fury, so the size of that doesn’t matter.”
Whilst ‘Bud’ is faced with what could be the toughest test of his career, the 37-year-old from Omaha could write his name into the boxing history books with a victory, as he will become the first male fighter to capture an undisputed championship in three divisions.
