Bob Arum wouldn’t have taken the question seriously if someone asked him a few years ago if Terence Crawford would beat Canelo Alvarez.
Alvarez was generally regarded as the best boxer, pound for pound, in the sport at that time. Crawford was a close second on most lists, but he was a welterweight, three full divisions below where Alvarez competed.
In fact, Arum expects Crawford to produce a convincing victory in a main event Netflix will stream globally to more than 300 million subscribers.
“I think Crawford will win a wide decision,” Arum told The Ring. “It’ll either be a knockout or a wide decision, more likely a wide decision because Canelo is gonna go into a shell. People don’t realize how far back Canelo has gone. It wasn’t just the last fight [with William Scull], but the fights before then.”
“Crawford has been fighting better fighters and Crawford has the tools to beat Canelo,” Arum said. “The one big asset that Crawford has, that these fighters don’t know how to deal with, is Crawford is completely ambidextrous. So, they’ll have Canelo sparring with right-handed sparring partners to get ready for the fight. And Crawford might start out fighting right-handed, but he’s gonna end up fighting him as a southpaw and Canelo’s not gonna know how to handle that.”
The former junior middleweight, middleweight and light heavyweight champion beat Trout and Lara on points. Alvarez later knocked out another left-handed opponent, James Kirkland, in the third round of their May 2015 bout in Houston.
“I would’ve said that’s maybe a bridge too far for Crawford,” Arum said. “But this isn’t the Canelo from years ago and this isn’t the Crawford from years ago. Crawford is now a complete fighter.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer and columnist for The Ring. He can be reached on X @idecboxing.
