Tim Bradley is advising Terence Crawford to be on the attack, focusing on backing up the Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez all night this Saturday, September 13. Bradley says he’s studied Canelo’s past fights and noted that he struggles when he’s fighting going backwards.
The Jab-Centric Strategy
Tim wants Crawford to use his jab frequently to back up undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs), and keep him under constant fire in their clash at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. Whether a jab will be enough for Terence to cause Canelo to back off is questionable. If he backs up, it won’t be by much because he’s going to want to land on the longer-armed Crawford.
“You don’t have to come out in a southpaw stance. You can come out in an orthodox stance. What’s the punch that hits Canelo all the time? The jab,” said Tim Bradley on his channel, giving Terence Crawford pearls of wisdom on how to defeat Canelo Alvarez on Saturday.
Fighting as a southpaw would be a bad idea, potentially for Crawford, because he would be getting hit with Canelo’s straight right hands all night in the same way he was frequently nailed by Israil Madrimov with rights in their fight last year on August 3, 2024.
“GGG was able to land his jab over and over. Floyd Mayweather was able to land his jab over and over. Bivol was able to land his jab over and over,” said Bradley about him wanting Crawford to use a jab-heavy approach to defeating Canelo.
In the case of Gennadiy Golovkin and light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol, Canelo had little choice but to hesitate with his attacks. He still landed big shots in each round of those fights. The Mayweather fight was a situation where Canelo was 22 and didn’t have the experience yet to know that he needed to press nonstop to get the win.
If he’d attacked Mayweather relentlessly that night, he’d have beaten him. When Canelo did go on the attack late in the fight, he had Mayweather on the run, not wanting to get hit.
Being “Brave” With the Jab
“You control him, push him back, and walk forward. Any time Canelo gives you an inch going back, you take that inch,” said Bradley. “That’s how you’re going to get this done. You’re going to have to be brave, my man, Crawford. You’re going to have to be on your P’s and Q’s when you walk forward because he will snap back with his left hooks or right hands to the body.”
It’s unlikely that Canelo will back down often on Saturday night, as that’s not his usual style. He did so against Golovkin and Bivol, but that was a different case of him going up against big punchers.
Crawford has not shown that he can punch above 147. In his last fight, going up to 154, he looked like he was in the presence of a room full of kryptonite, as he looked powerless in his fight against Madrimov.
“You’ve got to put him on his back foot with how cerebral you are, with your feints, with your movement and being very authoritative with that jab,” said Bradley.
Using a jab to beat Canelo isn’t going to work, as it’s been tried before by Erislandy Lara and Gennadiy Golovkin. The judges don’t value fighters who use a jab-centric strategy against Alvarez because it’s not enough to outweigh the hard, clean-landing shots that he connects with in each round.
Even if Canelo is only landing three or four powerful punches in a round, it’s likely going to be enough to impress the judges if the only thing Crawford is doing is jabbing. In other words, Terence won’t get a win on the cheap against the ‘Face of Boxing’ Canelo.
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