Crawford’s Coach Predicts Aggressive Strategy Against Alvarez: “You Ain’t Ever Seen Crawford Stay On The Backfoot”

Trence Crawford’s coach, Bernie ‘The Boxer’ Davis, says Crawford won’t be fighting off the “back foot” against Canelo Alvarez on September 12th. He states that he will be attacking Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs), looking to rip his undisputed super middleweight title away from him at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

(Credit: Geoffrey Knott/Matchroom)

The way Bernie talks about Crawford, you’d think he’d wipe out everybody from 168 to 200. But when you look at Terence’s last performance against Israil Madrimov, it sounds like a pure hustle job. He’s just lucky he didn’t have to earn the Canelo fight by going through a room full of venomous King cobras and hungry wolves, fighting David Benavidez, David Morrell, and Dmitry Bivol.

Expect The Backpedal

It’s difficult to imagine Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) attacking Canelo like he were a plate of food, because of his inactivity, and he’s moving up two divisions to fight at 168 for the first time. You could take Terence seriously if he’d shown some courage by going up in weight and agreed to fight David Benavidez or David Morrell first.

He’s been just sitting, getting old, and happy that Turki Alalshikh gave him the fight against Canelo without him having to risk his backside by going up and fighting one of those killers. It beats working for a living, having things given to him.

“When you see Crawford, he’s going to go in there and get busy with Canelo. You don’t even doubt that,” said Bernie ‘Tha Boxer’ Davis to Pro Boxing Fans, sounding like a hype man on the verge of tears talking bout Terence Crawford coming to win against Canelo Alvarez on September 12th. “You ain’t ever seen Crawford stay on the backfoot in no fight in his life. Do you understand that?”

Well, I remember Crawford fighting on his back foot against Israil Madrimov and Viktor Postol. He was moving a lot in both fights. One reason Crawford hasn’t fought on the back foot much is that his opposition has been poor, virtually his entire career. He’s only fought one good fighter in his 17-year career, and that’s Madrimov. He almost lost to him, and he’s not even an elite-level fighter.

Errol Spence was a ruined fighter by the time Crawford fought him. He’d been depleted from his 2019 car crash, injuries, inactivity, and yo-yo dieting. He was a shell of the fighter he’d been when he’d first turned pro.

Stepping Into Trouble

“He’s the type of guy who is going to go get you,” said Davis about Crawford. “So, expect him to go get him [Canelo]. We’re going to do everything we can do him. We’re going to do everything we got to do.

“But one thing you can expect is Crawford is going to step to him, because you can’t beat Canelo going on the back foot forever. You got to go get him. You got to do something, and he better know Crawford is coming,” said Davis.

Crawford probably won’t “step to” Canelo enough for him to win a decision. Once he gets a taste of Alvarez’s power, he’s going to go into a defensive mode, trying to win rounds by jabbing. That’s not going to work. You don’t beat the superstar Canelo by jabbing him, because that’s been tried by Gennadiy Golovkin in their first fight and Erislandy Lara. The judges focused more on Canelo’s power shots and ignored the jabs from GGG and Lara.