Canelo Alvarez is set for what may be his biggest fight to date as he takes on Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford.
Canelo vs Terence Crawford is getting ever closer, and is now just weeks away from its September 13th date.
The Mexican star will hope to defend his undisputed super-middleweight titles in dominant fashion, and may score his first KO since 2021 – which was when Canelo defeated Caleb Plant to become undisputed.
Years before this mega-fight, though, and just a couple fights before his knockout drought began, Canelo was challenged by one cocky Brit, and then a cocky American.
Canelo Alvarez was called out by Demetrius Andrade in post-fight press conference
In 2021, Canelo sought to unify the super-middleweight titles against British boxer, Billy Joe Saunders.
Saunders is a controversial character, due to his brand of humor and willingness to take things too far – such as when Saunders threw chicken at Deontay Wilder in a British restaurant.
The fight went surprisingly well for Saunders to begin with, and though he was behind on the scorecards going into the eighth round, he had given a good account of himself against the face of boxing.
It was in that eighth round, though, that Canelo landed a thunderous punch that shattered Saunders’ orbital bone.
In a cruel twist of fate, Saunders retired on his stool after suffering the same injury he mocked Daniel Dubois for retiring with against Joe Joyce.
After the win, Canelo participated in the post-fight press conference, which was crashed by Demetrius Andrade, who demanded a fight with the star.
Andrade said, “Good job man, I’m a big fan, what’s up though? When can we make it happen?”
Canelo responded, “Man, you fight with nobody […] Get the f— out of here, man. It’s my night.”
Andrade and Canelo got into a heated exchange after that, which ended when Andrade was forcefully removed by security.
A fight never materialized between the two, though Andrade did end up facing David Benavidez instead, and was stopped in six rounds in 2023. He has not fought since.
Canelo’s next opponent could be making a huge mistake
With Canelo facing Crawford next, many have sided with the Mexican on account of his size, with Bud moving up two weight divisions after his razor-close win over Israil Madrimov.
However, Gennady Golovkin’s former trainer, Abel Sanchez, believes Crawford may be putting on too much weight, and the issue is not that he will weigh too little on fight night, but too much.
Sanchez believes Crawford bulking so much in a short span of time will not give him the time to acclimatize to the added weight, meaning he will see no real benefit in terms of power, and will only see detriment in terms of him losing speed.
It remains to be seen how both men will look as they make weight for the fight, as the Whyte vs Itauma weigh-in shows us that game plans can often be revealed on the scales.