Keith Thurman says it will be an uphill battle for Terence Crawford to beat Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, though he doesn’t rule out Crawford’s chances.
“Crawford’s been bulking for a while,” Thurman said, perhaps assuaging some concerns about the size difference between the super middleweight king and Crawford, who won a world title at 154lbs last year after previously being undisputed champion at 147 and 140, and the Ring Magazine champion at 135. Thurman spoke , also discussing his comeback fight in Australia against Brock Jarvis, among other subjects.
recently in which he stepped on a scale and produced a reading of 186lbs. He wore long pants and a jacket in the clip, so whether his actual weight corresponds to the scale’s reading is uncertain – and if Crawford does indeed weigh 186lbs, cutting 18 pounds to make the super middleweight limit does not seem ideal.
Thurman also spoke to what he perceives as Canelo’s weaknesses.
“Canelo is slow,” he said, pointing out that after Alvarez decked Jermell Charlo in the seventh round of their 2023 bout, he never meaningfully hurt the smaller man again.
“I don’t know if you know what a Canelo left hook looks like,” Thurman said, rising from his chair and demonstrating the exaggerated windup on Alvarez’s power shots. “It’s a big pull,” Thurman explained.
Recent Canelo opponents have been able to avoid the finishing blow after getting knocked down once, showing perhaps part of a path to victory, but they have been unable to deliver significant shots of their own. Therein lies the challenge.
“I don’t want to say it’s impossible for my boy Crawford,” Thurman said, “but it’s one of those things that needs to be planned out, trained out, and methodically delivered on fight night.”