Terence Crawford posted his current weight of 186 today, but it’s unclear if this is a bluff or real as he ramps up for his fight against three-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September.
If he puts on too much more size, it’s going to be a nightmare for him to lose all that come fight week for his September 13th clash against Alvarez. Crawford has got to try and put on weight because he was weak in his last fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
That was Terence’s debut at 154, moving up from 147 after a year out of the ring on an extended victory lap, celebrating his win over Errol Spence Jr in July 2023. In a video clip on Ring Magazine, Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) looked bigger than before but fatter and not the trim fighter that he’d been when campaigning. He looked pretty scruffy-looking.
Canelo easily beat former undisputed 154-lb champion Jermell Charlo by a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision on September 30, 2023, when he moved up two divisions to challenge him for his titles. Jermell is a more powerful and bigger fighter than Crawford, but he was too weak and small to stay in the pocket against Alvarez. He was forced to run after he started getting tagged by Canelo. So, he chooses to survive to get the payday. That’s what Crawford may do.
Assuming this turns out to be a mismatch in favor of Canelo, Turki Al-Sheikh should steer away from putting together future fights involving fighters making huge two to three-division weight jumps.
They’re only doing it for paydays, and the matches aren’t entertaining. Crawford should be trying to become undisputed at 154 instead of chasing a payday two divisions above at 168 against Canelo.
Terence struggled in his debut at 154, looking too small and weak. Now, he’s moving up to 168. If Turki wants to do these kinds of fights, he needs to have the smaller fighter earn the shot by beating the top contenders in the higher division.
