Too Big, Too Soon? Crawford’s Weight Gain Could Cost Him Against Canelo

Terence Crawford looks huge right now, possibly in the 180s, as he bulks for his mega-money fight against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. Israil Madrimov posted a video clip of him meeting with Crawford on social media, and the size difference between them is surprising.

Slowpoke Now

Crawford is already bigger than Canelo right now. At this rate, he might be big enough to move up to 175 to take on whoever winds up with the four belts from the Artur Beterbeiv vs. Dmitry Bivol fight. Crawford might have to go through David Benavidez to get a shot at the winner, but maybe not.

If Turki Alalshikh wants to smooth things over for Terence by getting him a straight shot without having to work for it, he can do it. He helped Crawford out with Canelo to get him a title shot. If Crawford had to work for the title shot by going through Osleys Iglesias, Diego Pacheco, and Christian Mbilli, he’d fail miserably over and over. I don’t care how much Crawford bulks up. He’s not beating Iglesias, Pacheco or Mbilli. They’d punch holes through him.

To make boxing look like a real sport, Turki should insist that Crawford earn his title shots from now on rather than having them given to him. He does NOT deserve to jump to the front of the line to challenge Canelo for his three or four 168-lb titles without ever fighting in the division. Crawford has no experience, and he’s being allowed to jump two divisions ahead of all the top contenders at super middleweight to challenge Canelo for his titles. There should be rules against this type of thing being done because it’s not fair..

Last August, the former WBA junior middleweight champion Madrimov was bigger than Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) in their battle in Los Angeles. But since then, Crawford looks like he’s put on a good 20+ lbs and looks bigger than some of the super middleweights in the division. Of course, that’s just size. It doesn’t necessarily translate to increased power.

Crawford’s fight against ‘Little GGG’ Madrimov showed that his power didn’t carry him from 147 to 154. He was the weaker fighter and took a lot of punishment from the right hands, which he ate all night from Madrimov.

Crawford packing all that weight on may come back to haunt him when he gets inside the ring with Canelo because it will slow him down, putting him in the line of fire. He won’t probably rehydrate to 193 lbs like Edgr Berlanga did. So, taking the big punches from Canelo won’t be easy for an old guy at 38 who has been fighting just once a year since 2020.