Andrade: Terence Crawford ‘No match for Canelo’

Demetrius Andrade thinks Canelo Alvarez is too big, strong and technical for Terence Crawford to move up to super middleweight and challenge him for his three titles the way he is pushing.

Too big, too strong

Former two-division world champion Andrade believes it is too big for the 37-year-old Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to move up two weight classes from 154 to have a chance of defeating WBA, WBC and WBO 168-lb champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs).

Nebraska native Crawford is campaigning to move up to 168 to fight Canelo with no experience in the weight class. He just wants to be given a chance to win the world title without providing for himself first by beating the top contenders lined up, such as David Morrell, David Benavidez, Christian Mbilli and Diego Pacheco.

There would be no problem if Terence was willing to earn the title by beating those four fighters in front of him, but he doesn’t want to do that. He wants Canelo to justify it based on his credentials from what he has done in other weight classes.

If you look at Crawford’s resume, there’s not much else to see other than defeating the car crash, injury-wrecked Errol Spence. The other semi-decent win on Crawford’s resume came against Israil Madrimov, but he nearly lost to him and looked poor, eating right hands all night.

Crawford moved up to 154 last summer on Aug. 3 and walked away with a 12-round unanimous decision victory over Madrimov. It was a fight that Terence could have easily lost if Madrimov had put his foot on the accelerator in the final three rounds by choosing to throw strikes. Even in defeat, Madrimov made Crawford look old and made it clear that he had reached his prime. He can’t go from 154 to 160 or 168 without losing.

Canelo’s advantages

“Yes, I think so. I love Crawford. He is a good friend and we help each other. But when it comes to weight and power, that shit is real,” Demetrius Andrade told Fight Hub TV when asked if Canelo Alvarez is too big for Terence Crawford.

«Skills too. Canelo is not a pushover. Look what he did to the little girl, [Jermell] Carlo. Charlo was the big bad wolf and ran away all night with a couple of hooks. Canelo threw a couple of hooks and ran all night. Where is that? [the intensity and bravery]? Let’s fight.

“I think Crawford has the skills, but when it comes to shooting and blocking, powerful shots, and Canelo knows how to move too. He has agility. It’s not like a robot. It will be tough. My opinion is my opinion. I don’t think Crawford can beat Canelo,” Andrade said.

Crawford is too small to fight at 168 against Canelo. The fight would be all about the money, and would be similar to when Canelo defended his super middleweight title against Jermell Charlo last year in September. Jermell moved up from 154 and was given a title shot against Canelo without testing himself.

He ran all night after feeling Canelo’s power in the first round, and the fans felt robbed afterwards. It was a joke. If Jermell had tried to prove himself by fighting Benavidez or Morrell, he would have been eliminated in a one-sided or knockout defeat, and fans wouldn’t have been robbed by seeing him get to Canelo. In the real world, Crawford should earn his title shot against Canelo like the other contenders, but he is looking for a shortcut to get the gigantic prize. It’s pathetic and wrong for the sport.

“Do I think I can give him a good fight? I’ll be sitting there rooting for Crawford all day,” Andrade said about Crawford. “I’ll always bet on black, always, but the reality is Canelo knows how to fight. He knows how to land big and he knows how to throw hard shots.

“He’s a technical guy too. Look what he did to Callum Smith: hitting elbows, hitting arms, hitting all those other types of things. He will use the same tactics on a smaller guy [Crawford]. I’m just saying. I’m just talking about real facts about boxing. I’m not trying to be in this fantasy world because that’s not what I’m in,” Andrade said.