Mikey Garcia Picks Terence Crawford To Beat Canelo Alvarez 

Terence Crawford is daring to be great by, in essence, going up three weight divisions to fight the undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez on September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The former undisputed welterweight champion made a small pitstop en route to his showdown with Canelo by fighting Israil Madrimov for the junior middleweight WBA (world) and WBO (interim) titles on August 4 of last year. Crawford was victorious by unanimous decision, but the match was much closer than expected. Crawford outlanded Madrimov in 7 rounds and in 4 of those rounds he outlanded him by only a punch.  Madrimov was the more effective puncher, landing 30.5 percent of his total punches with 65 of them being power punches (Compubox).

On September 13, Crawford will test himself and attempt to become legendary by becoming the first undisputed three-division champion. There have been many boxers throughout history who’ve dared to be great by testing their limits. Mikey Garcia is one of them. Similar to  Crawford, he went up in weight to challenge the IBF welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. For that match, Mikey went up from lightweight to welterweight. Garcia, a four-division champion, did have a small stint at super lightweight, defeating IBF champion Sergey Lipinets  before returning to lightweight to unify the IBF and WBC titles against Robert Easter Jr.  Although Mikey made a valiant effort, he was defeated by the bigger, stronger Spence via a unanimous decision.

Mikey was asked to compare his experience and how he views the fight between Canelo  Alvarez and Terence Crawford. “Very different situation, different opponents, different styles of fighting. So, it’s not…it’s not. I can’t really quite compare the fight, you know, side by side, but it does face challenges. You know, every time we move up in weight, fighters are bigger, naturally bigger. They can take a bigger punch. Um, they can give a better punch, too. You know, they’re heavier, but this is a different matchup. Canelo is not as fast, not as aggressive. He kind of goes on cruise control. He’s not one to use his strength as size to dominate all the time. Sometimes he’s like I say, just cruise control, which allows Crawford, I think, to fight a little bit more comfortably. Crawford’s IQ, I think, is superb. So, I’m actually thinking he might pull it off.”

The biggest question will be if Crawford will stay in the pocket against Canelo. Due to the potential weight and strength difference, he may instead opt to do what many Canelo opponents do, which is move throughout the ring and utilize lateral movement. Jermell Charlo,  the former undisputed junior welterweight champion, chose this strategy against Canelo when he went up two weight classes to face Alvarez nearly two years ago. Crawford has stated that  he intends to engage a lot more than Charlo did. Mikey believes Crawford can win by boxing,  when asked how he would beat Canelo if he were Crawford, he said, “Box, box, counter punch,  box, switch…you know from left-handed to right-handed. Just make it complicated for…for  Canelo and uh, win a decision. You’re [Crawford] not going to hurt him. So, it’s a win-win decision.” Mikey believes Crawford must utilize all his skills to win, switching stances, giving Canelo different looks, and boxing on the outside. He doesn’t think Crawford has the power to knock Canelo out, but he does have the skill to outpoint him to a decision.

Mikey Garcia