Spence Says Crawford Will Beat Canelo – ‘He’s Chasing Greatness’

Errol Spence Jr. has backed Terence Crawford to beat Canelo Alvarez. 

Spence has been in the ring with Crawford. Bud stopped him in round nine after getting dropped three times. The win made Crawford the first Undisputed Welterweight Champion of the four-belt era. The victory also solidified his position as an all-time great as he became undisputed in a second weight class. The Spence rematch broke down as Crawford turned his attention elsewhere.

Bud will box Israil Madrimov on August 3 for the WBA Junior Middleweight Belt. A win makes him a four-division champion, allowing the possibility of becoming undisputed in a third weight class. However, he is also willing to fight Canelo.

Spence Reacts

Alvarez is the Undisputed Super Middleweight Champion. He dismissed the Crawford fight initially, saying he would get no credit for beating a 147 fighter. However, reports indicate the Saudis want to make it happen. Since Canelo moved up to 175 to beat Sergey Kovalev, Spence backed Bud to do the same. 

“If Crawford wants to challenge himself to be great, let him try to be great. I’m with it. I’d be going for Bud. I don’t know if he’d win or lose, but if anybody can pull it off, he can pull it off. He’s chasing greatness. Canelo went up to 175 and fought Kovalev and the other guy [Dmitry Bivol], too. If he can do it, and he started at 147, if he can do it, why can’t Crawford do it?” Spence said

Nevertheless, weight classes do exist for a reason. Jermell Charlo moved up two weight classes from 154 pounds to fight Canelo. He was undisputed at 154. However, the extra weight was telling. He no longer had the speed nor the power to hurt Canelo. Alvarez was able to walk him down, even dropping him to the canvas. While Charlo made it to the final bell, he simply tried to avoid getting knocked out.

Crawford’s Chances

Crawford is also 37 years old. To add that extra weight at this stage of his career is a risk. Given the amount of effort required to remove the weight, it also means that he would unlikely come back down from 168 to a smaller weight class. But if he can set it up as his last fight and beat Alvarez, he will put himself in the conversation for being the very best. Crawford’s coach, Brian McIntyre, has previously stated that Bud would outbox Canelo. 

“Bud beats..[him] just outbox him. It [the weight difference] don’t matter – Bud been fighting big people all his…life. Power? We know how to roll with punches…..we’ll take your power away from you. How do you take the power away from a power-puncher? I ain’t gonna tell you! Timing. [If the fight happens] it’d be an Errol Spence-Crawford II.

“I respect that [Canelo said he would gain nothing from the fight], because you get beat by the smaller man…. Hard boxing fans know that Bud could beat Canelo. He might be bigger, but he don’t got the height, he ain’t got the reach. He’s got a good boxing IQ, but he don’t have that crazy IQ that Terence has,” Bomac stated

Comments

Find all the latest boxing news and MMA breaking updates on boxingnews.com.