One Way Or Six? Roy Jones Jr. Assesses Canelo’s Chances Against Crawford

Hall of Famer Roy Jones Jr. says Canelo Alvarez only has “one way” while his opponent, Terence Crawford, has “six ways” he can win their superfight this Saturday, September 13, at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

The ‘Perfect Fight’ for Canelo

Jones Jr. believes that Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) has to put on the ‘perfect fight’ to defeat Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who is essentially moving up three divisions from campaigning at welterweight [147] to super middleweight [168] for this fight.

“If he fights the correct fight, he does have a chance, and I think he could be victorious,” said Roy Jones Jr. to Ring Magazine about Canelo Alvarez needing to fight the perfect fight to defeat Terence Crawford this Saturday.

The way Roy made it sound, he pictured Canelo as a bottom-of-the-barrel scrub that is being brought in as Crawford’s opponent. He makes it clear that he sees the fight as one-sided unless Canelo does something incredible.

The Six-Way Mystery

“If he [Canelo] doesn’t fight the one way that he can to win, Terence Crawford has six ways he can win it,” Jones Jr. said. “And my money will go to the man who has six ways to win it over the man who has one way to win it.

Interestingly, Jones Jr. didn’t say what the six ways Crawford, 37, can defeat Canelo. He just threw out the number without backing it up with his reasons. It’s unclear whether he’s been thinking about it for some time or if it’s just something that floated into his head at the moment, and he thought it would sound good.

Six is an awful lot of ways for Crawford to win, given that his style is pretty simple. He’s either sticking and moving or standing still to counter-punch. That’s been his style his entire career. In Crawford’s last fight against Madrimov, he didn’t move as much, perhaps due to the weight and the inactivity. He’d moved up from 147 to 154.

Canelo’s Narrow Path

“If he don’t, he’s in trouble,” said Roy Jr. when asked if Canelo has to ‘fight the perfect fight to win’ against Crawford. “If he does, he should be all good.”

I wonder if Jones Jr. watched Crawford’s last fight? He wasn’t the same fighter at 154 that he’d been in the past, fighting at 147 and 140. The move up in weight, coupled with 13 months of inactivity and age kicking in, made him look nothing like the fighter he’d been in the past.

Crawford turns 38 on September 28 and is coming off arguably a career-worst performance 13 months ago against Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024. Terence got through that fight just barely, winning a 12-round unanimous decision with a pair of 115-113 scores and 116-112. I watched the fight and had it for Madrimov 115-113.