Oscar De La Hoya believes he knows who will prevail in the upcoming mega-fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
The pound-for-pound icons will clash in a super middleweight showdown in Las Vegas this September, with Canelo’s unified WBC, WBA and WBO 168lb titles set to be at stake.
‘Bud’ Crawford is bidding to become a five-division world champion just over 1-year on from his victory over Israil Madrimov to capture the WBA light middleweight title. The 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska stepped up to 154lbs and defeated Madrimov in an underwhelming performance at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
One man who has shown an interest in the mega-fight is six-weight world champion turned promoter De La Hoya, who has a history of working alongside Canelo in the early stages of the 34-year-old’s professional career.
Speaking to FightHype, ‘The Golden Boy’ assessed Crawford’s chances of defeating the Mexican superstar and admitted he believes Canelo’s natural attributes will be the deciding factor come fight night.
“Look, fighter versus fighter and talent, obviously Crawford is the craftier boxer but Canelo has the size, he has the power and it’s like [bob] Arum said he’ll run right through him.
It’ll be a tough fight but stylistically I mean yeah it’ll be a one-sided fight for maybe let’s say seven rounds and then Canelo starts attacking, attacking, he starts to take it to deep waters and the power will eventually be too much. Will it be a great fight? Will it be a huge event? Absolutely.”
Canelo will have the opportunity to reclaim the undisputed super middleweight champion when he faces IBF champion William Scull on May 3 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Should the 34-year-old be victorious against Scull, the stakes for his highly anticipated showdown against ‘Bud’ will be raised even higher.
