Promoter Oscar De La Hoya says Terence Crawford’s performance last Saturday against Ismail Madrimov has made him change his mind about whether he could beat unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
Crawford’s Struggles Against Madrimov
De La Hoya states that going into the Crawford-Madrimov fight, he thought Crawford would be too skilled for Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs), even at 168. However, after watching him struggle against WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov at the BMO Arena in Los Angeles, he now believes Alvarez would beat him on size and talent.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) had a lot going against him in that fight, coming off a year layoff, moving up in weight and age, and never having fought many, if any, high-level fighters during his career. It was smoke and mirrors with Crawford and Madrimov exposed that.
De La Hoya didn’t say whether he would still like to see Crawford move up to 168 for the Canelo fight or if he would prefer he fight guys closer to his own weight class at 154 and 147.
“I actually thought Crawford would beat Canelo before I saw him fight Saturday [against Israil Madrimov],” said Oscar De La Hoya to the Sean Zittel YouTube site about his belief that Canelo Alvarez would beat Terence Crawford after watching Crawford’s fight last Saturday night against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov.
“It changed my mind. I think the bigger, better man in the history of the sport will always beat a good small fighter. It’s written in the history of boxing. It didn’t help with me and Pacquiao because I was over the hill. I was older, I was shot, but in the history of the sport, it always happens.”
Crawford turns 37 in September, and he’d been piling up wins over a lot of older, lesser fighters for many years. We’d never seen him in with anyone really good for at least a decade, and it was obvious that he was not as good as we’d thought.
Crawford’s Past Opponents
Crawford had been padding his resume being these fighters for the last six years:
– Errol Spence: *Post car crash
– Shawn Porter: Washed up at 34
– David Avanesyan: Fringe contender
– Jeff Horn: Paper champion
– Kell Brook: Post Golovkin knockout = washed
– Egidijus Kavaliauskas: WIFI password = Fringe contender
– Amir Khan: Washed
– Jose Benavidez Jr: Gunshot victim
“The bigger, better man will always beat the good smaller man,” said De La Hoya about his belief that Canelo would be too big and too good for the smaller Crawford.
Canelo-Crawford Fight Still Possible, But Unlikely
The Canelo-Crawford fight can still happen, but it will require that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh come up with the $150 million purse request that Canelo has asked for, and he doesn’t appear willing to do that.
“When a man comes to America and wants to deliver to us the best and the biggest fights how can one argue? It’s impossible,” said De La Hoya about His Excellency Turki Alalshikh. “Yes, bring us more. We love boxing, we love the fight game, and we love to see fighting the best. Turki is making that happen.
“Let’s thank him. When he talks about Canelo not wanting to fight Benavidez and outpricing himself. Even Turki knows that,” said De La Hoya.
