Crawford To ‘Outbox’ Canelo? Rahman Claims Alvarez’s Recent Opponents Have Masked His Vulnerabilities

Former two-time heavyweight champion Hasim Rahman predicts that Terence Crawford will “outbox” unified three-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in September.

Rahman wasn’t impressed with how Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) fought Jermell Charlo in September 2023, and he says Crawford will use Jermell’s performance as a blueprint against the Mexican star. He says Alvarez has been spoiled lately with his careful matchmaking.

Hasim notes that Alvarez has been taking “soft touches” lately, and that’s going to come back to haunt him when he gets in the ring with Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs. Alvarez has been fighting weak opposition steadily since 2021.

The only good opponent he’s fought in the last four years was Dmitry Bivol, and that was a classic cherry pick gone wrong. Bivol had looked terrible in his two prior fights before Canelo picked him out when he moved up to 175.

Retirement Tour?

Fans agree with Rahman. Canelo has seemingly been on a retirement tour, fighting fighters with inflated resumes, John Ryder, Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga. Alvarez has dodged the sharks, David Benavidez, David Morrell, Diego Pacheco and Christian Mbilli.

“In the [Jermell] Charlo fight, I wasn’t really impressed with Canelo. Even though he won it, I really didn’t think he did what I thought he was capable of doing. I feel like that gave Terence a blueprint in how to fight him,” said Hasim Rahmon to Fighthype, explaining why he feels Terence Crawford will defeat Canelo Alvarez when they fight on September 13th.

It looked like Canelo faded early in the fight against Jermell Charlo in 2023, and didn’t put his foot on the accelerator to cut off the ring on him to score a stoppage. You could see that Canelo was exhausted after three or four rounds, and it was lucky for him that Jermell showed no interest in taking the fight to him. It looked like he’d just shown up for the payday.

“I’ve seen Canelo lose fights. They just didn’t take it from him, but I feel that Terence will outbox him. I don’t think Terence will knock him out. Terence will outbox him. Terence is clever in the ring. Terence knows how to maneuver the ring,” said Rahman.

The fighter that Hasim failed to name, and that he’s seen Canelo lose, are likely against Erislandy Lara and Gennadiy Golovkin [fight #1 in 2017]. Austin Trout was another one that fans thought Canelo should have lost.

Spoiled Champion

“I think the ring generalship belongs to Terence. I think Canelo got a little spoiled. I think he’s been fighting softer touches lately. I think that’s going to be to his disservice in this fight. I think Terence is going to win the fight,” said Rahman.

Hasim is correct. Canelo has been fighting soft touches for the last years after getting beat by Dmitry Bivol in 2022. He backed away from taking risky fights after that loss, and has feasted on these fighters: Gennadiy Golovkin [40-years-old], John Ryder, Jermell Charlo, Jaime Munguia and Edgar Berlanga.