Crawford On His Tactics For Spence, Bud Wants Canelo At 168 And More

Terence Crawford has opened up on how he was aiming to take the attack to Errol Spence Jr. before changing tactics. 

Bud stopped Spence in the ninth round to become the first undisputed welterweight champion of the four belt era.

And as part of that process, Crawford knocked down Spence on three occasions to become undisputed in a second weight class.

Bud’s ability to take the jab away, as well as outmuscle the much bigger man, was something that took people by surprise. And yet, Crawford has now confirmed that he decided to box Spence after initially wanting to overpower him. 

Crawford On His Tactics For Spence

“In my mind I wanted to fight. But given the circumstances—he (Spence) haven’t had nobody that … got the confidence to go out there and be like, ‘OK, alright, lemme see how you gon take a punch to the chin.

“Lemme see how you gon’ take a punch to the body. Lemme see how you gon’ react when you can’t react somebody around.’ My mind was, you know what I mean, it was racing a little bit. ‘Man, how should I come out.’

“And, man, it was like, ‘just come out boxing. That’s it. Just come out boxing, using your jab. You got one of the greatest jabs that’s never really talked about because they always giving people credit about their abilities and they miss yours,” Crawford

Crawford On Canelo

In addition to this, Crawford has now changed his stance by stating that he is willing to fight Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds. 

Such a move would be risky, given that Crawford would be jumping up three weight classes in order to make it happen.

Although that may be the case, Crawford did initially confirm that he wanted the fight Canelo at a catchweight of 158 pounds.

That did not go down well with Canelo, who made it clear that such a fight would be out of the question.

Alvarez has not fought below 168 since he beat Danny Jacobs in 2019. But with that being said, Crawford has now changed his stance. 

“No, 168. Yeah [I want to move up to super middleweight]. Yeah, if [Alvarez beats Jermell Charlo on Sept. 30]. Yeah. Or Charlo. The winner. I want to be a three-time undisputed [champion].

“I know I want to fight Jermell. But if he loses to Canelo, I always say, man. That’s a big step. That’s a big step but for a person to go up three weight classes from 147 to 168, and to win, and to become undisputed, wow,” Crawford

Canelo On Crawford

Despite this being the case, Canelo has stressed that facing Crawford would do nothing for his career. This was on the basis that a victory over him would not be praised since he was expected to win.

However, given that the fight would be a lucrative event, if the numbers were right, it may be enough to get Canelo’s attention. And yet, the desire for Canelo to face other fighters may be bigger.

The boxing fan base have been waiting for Alvarez to agree a fight with David Benavidez since the latter is the WBC interim heavyweight champion. 

But rather than confirm whether he would fight Benavidez, Canelo became frustrated over the questions. 

“I don’t know, we don’t know. We’re 100% focused on this fight, and then we’ll see, but it’s always a chance. “Yeah,. Remember when everyone was asking when I was happening with Golovkin? ‘Oh, Golovkin. Oh, Golovkin.’ I’m tired because I always fight the fighters, you say,” Canelo

This is significant for the following reason. Benavidez confirmed that he does aim to move up to light heavyweight at some point.

Therefore, the time to arrange a fight with Canelo may be running out. Benavidez’s comments confirmed as much. 

“Probably just three fights [at 168], or close to then. I want to make these fights happen; I worked my whole f****g career to get to that moment to fight for those belts. It’s almost there, so I can’t go until I get that fight,” Benavidez 

Ultimately, Canelo and Crawford have earned the right to decide where they go next. But if they did manage to agree to a fight, then it would certainly appease the appetite of boxing fans. And there is no getting away from that.