Roy Jones Jr has given an insight into Terence Crawford‘s chances of defeating Saul Canelo Alvarez in their upcoming mega-fight.
‘Bud’ Crawford is bidding to become a five-weight world champion when he challenges Canelo for his unified WBC, WBA and WBO super middleweight titles in September of this year.
The 37-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska had been calling for a showdown against the Mexican superstar for some time and ramped his efforts up last August, shortly after he dethroned WBA super-welterweight champion Israil Madrimov in Los Angeles to become a four-division champ.
A fight between the pound-for-pound stars has now been agreed and will take place this September in Las Vegas, with an official announcement expected to be made very soon.
It was revealed earlier this week that Canelo had signed a four-fight deal with Riyadh Season, with the first of coming against William Scull in May as the 34-year-old looks to become a two-time undisputed super middleweight champion. He will then move ahead to face Crawford.
Speaking to RealLyfe Productions, Jones believes the only way he sees the American suffering defeat is if he faces someone significantly bigger than him.
“I don’t see nobody around that’s gonna beat ‘Bud’ unless it’s somebody way bigger than him.”
That may be the issues present in this bout, as Crawford will be moving up two weight classes for the pleasure, packing on 14 pounds to match Canelo’s bulk and likely weighing much less come fight night.
As such, Jones told Mill City Boxing that he leans towards the Mexican.
“I like Terence, but I’m going to lean towards Canelo with his size early but if he lets Terence get into the fight Terence going to be a problem and if Terence can deal with the size, Terence will beat him.”
It will undoubtedly be the biggest challenge of Crawford’s career when he steps up to 168lbs against the Mexican star. However, not many will write the 37-year-old off – he has been victorious in all 41 of his professional contests as he edges closer to writing himself even deeper into the boxing history books.
