“He’ll Want To Trade, And That’s What Scares Me”: Bradley Fears Crawford’s Toughness Will Be His Downfall Against Acclimated Canelo Alvarez

Tim Bradley says he’s worried for Terence Crawford in this fight with Canelo Alvarez because he knows  Bud’s stubborn mindset and toughness. Bradley believes that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will want to trade with the unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) and could get clipped.

Trading Dangers

Tim points out that Canelo is “acclimated” to the 168-lb division, having fought there since 2020, and he’s as strong as a bull. If Crawford starts slugging with Canelo, he won’t be able to take those kinds of shots. He’s not another Gennadiy Golovkin, who stood in the pocket in his fight with Canelo.

Although Terence is a strong fighter, he’s not at the level of a GGG that can take Alvarez’s shots for 12 rounds without being reduced to sawdust. However, it’s not going to work for Crawford to try and run his way to a victory by following the Mayweather blueprint. The fight is going to be staged in Las Vegas, not Omaha or Riyadh, where he might get lucky with the judging.

Canelo is the King of Las Vegas, and if all he does is land two or three hard shots in every round, that’ll be more than enough to outweigh the weak jabs that Crawford is throwing using his Mayweather style.

Crawford’s Toughness

“That’s what scares me about the Canelo fight. He’s tough,” said Tim Bradley to Fighthype about Terence Crawford being too tough for his own good, and will want to trade with Canelo Alvarez when he gets hit hard.

Crawford hasn’t fought anyone near the level of Canelo. Terence took a lot of shots in his last fight at 154 against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd, and his face looked like he’d been through a war zone at the end of that fight. Crawford looked like a 38-year-old in that fight and was nowhere near the level he was at when he fought the car-crash-ruined Errol Spence Jr. in 2023.

“He’s not going to back down, and that’s what scares me about that fight because you don’t need to be trading with that bull,” Bradley continued about it being a bad idea for Crawford to trade shots with a powerful, natural 168-pounder like Canelo.

“I know you’re strong, but that dude [Alvarez] is naturally strong, and he’s been at this weight class for a very long time [since December 19, 2020, when Canelo fought Callum Smith]. He’s acclimated. You’re not. You don’t need to be trading with this guy at all, regardless of how the fight is going,” said Bradley about Crawford.