Will Canelo’s power or Crawford’s precision prove the decisive factor in Saturday night’s showdown in Las Vegas? Our writers set out the arguments on both sides
For years Bud Crawford’s name has been synonymous with patience. Denied mainstream recognition and opportunities against name-brand fighters, he kept beating everyone they put in front of him until he’d unified all four titles at junior welterweight. Then he did it again at welterweight with a dismantling of Errol Spence Jr so complete it cemented his place in boxing’s pound-for-pound S-tier alongside Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk. His gifts are obvious: the ability to switch seamlessly between stances, to read rhythms like sheet music, and to mete out punishment with icy composure once he’s cracked the code.
Crawford’s scaling of two weight classes for this fight remains the 168lb elephant in the room. All but one of his 41 professional bouts took place at 147lb or below, while Canelo has been entrenched at 168 for nearly seven years and once captured a title at 175. On paper that is an enormous gap. But the leap may not be prohibitive. Crawford’s wiry frame has long suggested he could carry more weight – he’s actually a half-inch taller than Álvarez with a three-and-a-half-inch reach advantage – and reports from camp say he has done so without sacrificing quickness. Just as important, Canelo’s aura of near-invincibility has dimmed. He has not finished an opponent inside the distance in nearly four years. Against elusive opposition (Callum Smith, John Ryder, most recently William Scull), he has been content to bank rounds rather than impose himself. Against slick boxers (Mayweather, Erislandy Lara, Austin Trout, Amir Khan for a while), he’s even looked ordinary. If the Mexican superstar is indeed in gentle decline, Crawford is precisely the kind of opponent capable of exposing it.
