In just one week, Canelo Alvarez will face Terence Crawford in what will be one of boxing’s biggest fights in recent years.
On September 13th, Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford will be put to the test after moving up two weight classes to face Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez for the undisputed super-middleweight titles.
Crawford’s last fight was one of his closest yet, as he edged a razor-close decision over the game Israil Madrimov to win a title at super-welterweight.
Canelo, meanwhile, has faced a lower-caliber tier of opponents in recent years, most recently defeating William Scull, who failed to engage with Canelo for the entire fight.
With the fight looming, everyone in the boxing world has something to say, but very few of them are men who can say they shared the ring with Crawford, and came out on top.
Ray Robinson speaks on how Crawford vs Canelo might pan out
Ray Robinson, now a 26-3-2 professional, with his two draws coming against high-profile fighters in Josh ‘Pretty Boy’ Kelly and Egidijus ‘Mean Machine’ Kavaliauskas, the only man to drop Crawford.
Robinson’s losses have also, in the most part, come against high-level fighters, with his most recent defeat coming against Yordenis Ugas and an earlier loss being against Shawn Porter, another of Crawford’s toughest foes.
It was not in the professional game that Robinson encountered Bud, though. Instead, Robinson and Crawford faced off as amateurs in the 2005 US Championship quarter-finals in Colorado Springs.
In a total of 111 fights across the amateur and pro games, Crawford lost just 12 times, against 11 men.
Three of those losses were avenged in subsequent bouts, but Robinson and Crawford met just once, making the Philadelphia-native one of just eight men to be one-up over Terence Crawford.
Speaking on Crawford’s upcoming fight with Canelo, Robinson said, “It’s kind of hard to go against Crawford because of, you know, how good he is and how he figures out ways to win. You can’t take nothing from him. You can’t blame him for trying to be great.”
“If it goes the distance, I think Crawford will win, but if Canelo, you know, touches him, it could go different.”
Terence Crawford has been beaten twice by one man
There are very few men who can say they have beaten Crawford, and even fewer who can say they’ve done it twice.
In fact, there is only one man who has got the better of Bud on more than one occasion, and that is Jerry Belmontes.
In 2006, Belmontes and Crawford fought for the first time in Kansas City, where Belmontes won on points.
Over a year later, the pair crossed paths again, though this time with much more at stake.
They fought in the 2007 USA National Championships semi-final, and Belmontes dashed Crawford’s hopes of the final with another points win.
As a pro, Belmontes’ career has been less successful; retiring in 2016, he left behind a record of 21-10.