Crawford downplays Canelo’s wins over GGG and Kovalev

By Boxing News - 12/12/2019 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: Terence Crawford doesn’t think too much of Canelo Alvarez’s wins over Gennadiy Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev. In fact, Crawford believes Canelo should have lost his first fight with GGG in 2017, and he says his second bout with him in 2018 could have been a draw.

Crawford disagrees with Canelo’s pound-for-pound rating

This week, Crawford said he didn’t agree with Canelo being moved ahead of him in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings. Canelo was moved to #1 in Ring’s ratings following his win over WBO light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev on November 2. At the same time that Canelo was moved to #1, Crawford was demoted from #2 to #4 in the Ring ratings.

As for Kovalev, Crawford says Canelo was losing to him at the time that he knocked out out in the 11th round in their fight last November.  Crawford says Canelo picked a fighter with a history of stamina problems in 36-year-old Kovalev, and he thinks that the Russian fighter was old. In other words, Crawford is giving Canelo very little credit for beating Kovalev.

Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum wants to match him against Canelo in 2020, so it makes sense that Terence is criticizing the Mexican star. If Crawford can move up two weight classes to fight Canelo at 160, he’ll get big bank for that bout. Kovalev reportedly made $12 million to face Canelo.

Crawford: Canelo should have lost to GGG, and trailed Kovalev

“Canelo was losing,” said Crawford to SiriusXM about Canelo’s fight against Kovalev. “Everyone know that Kovalev gets tired. Kovalev is what? He’s old. People want to see Canelo vs. GGG 3, because everyone knows that GGG won the first fight. It could have been a draw,” said Crawford when asked his thoughts on the second Canelo vs. Golovkin fight.

“I give Canelo the edge, but it could have been a draw,” said Crawford about the second Canelo vs. Golovkin fight in 2018. “It was still close. If I was going to give anybody the hand’s up, it would be Canelo. But it was still a close fight. I don’t agree with the decision on the first fight, but I still give him credit for the second fight.

“The difference in me moving up and fighting a champion and him [Canelo] moving up to fight a champion, he fought a guy that’s been knocked out more than once before. He’s fought a guy [Kovalev] that has lost before. I’m fighting guys that are undefeated that’s beaten champions,” said Crawford.

What Crawford says about Canelo’s fight with Kovalev is correct about him trailing going into the 11th round. Kovalev was on his way to a victory when he got caught by Canelo, and knocked out. Kovalev’s stamina and chin problems betrayed him against Canelo, and cost him the fight.

The majority of the boxing world had Golovkin winning the first fight against Canelo in 2017, and that was the match that was scored a draw. The scoring for that fight was quite controversial, but it wasn’t truly shocking to see it scored as a draw. Canelo was the A-side, and he was fighting in his favorite venue at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. GGG should be happy that he didn’t lose.

Crawford says fighters are called ‘Bums’ after he beats them

“There’s something about these fighters when they don’t have a loss,” said Crawford. “They’re protecting way different when they do have a loss. They don’t know how to lose. So they’re fighting with that different intensity and animosity. A fighter that has tasted defeat numerous times, he knows how to lose.

“So it’s like he knows when he’s beat. A fighter that has never lost before, he don’t know when he’s beat. He’s never tasted that defeat before. So he’s still coming at you with everything he has. I thought the Viktor Postol fight was going to be harder than it was. Like I said, I thought Postol was going to be a tougher test than it was.

“I always look at it like, ‘they haven’t fought me yet. Those guys might look a certain way against one fighter, but then they fight a guy of my caliber, and then look totally different, and everyone is calling them, ‘bums.’ But before that, ‘this fighter was this or that fighter was that,'” said Crawford.

Boxing fans call Crawford’s opponents, ‘Bum’s, is because he doesn’t fight the good opposition. He fights a lot of fringe contende level guys like Jose Benavidez, Jeff Horn, John Molina, Julius Indongo and Felix Diaz. If Crawford was fighting the best at 147, people wouldn’t be so critical of him. But Crawford can’t do much, because his promoters at Top Rank are the ones that find opponents for him.

Crawford won’t be fighting when he’s 36

“It’s kind of like Felix Diaz. Everybody was like, ‘Fight Felix Diaz. He’s this, and he’s that,'” said Crawford. “He was just coming off of a stoppage win over Sammy Vazquez, and he was moving down in weight. No one wanted to fight him. He’s calling out me, Broner, Pacquiao, and he’s calling out everybody. He was on the PBC side. Nobody wanted to fight him. I fought him, and stopped him,” said Crawford about te 5’5″ Diaz.

“And I don’t see myself fighting at 36, but you got fighters that age well like Bernard Hopkins, and you got fighters that don’t age well,” said Crawford. “I just feel that Kovalev has been in a lot of wars, and he has a lot of miles on his body. I don’t want to be in boxing if I don’t have to. That’s cool and all, but that’s when things start slowing down, and something drastic can happen to you.  So I want to retire from boxing before boxing retires me,” said Crawford.

This week some of the comments that Crawford has made seem to suggest he isn’t going to be fighting too much longer. Right now he’s saying he’ll be done with boxing by the time he’s 36, but we’ll see. If Crawford is still fighting at a high level, it’s quite possible that he’ll still be fighting.

What could cause Crawford to consider retiring early is if Arum matches him against Canelo, Errol Spence, Shawn Porter or Keith Thurman. Those guys will put hands on Crawford n a way that that his previous 35 opponents have been unable to do.

Terence not overlooking Kavaliauskas 

“I know he’s a two-time Olympian, he’s real strong, and he can box, he can bang, and pretty much he knows what he’s doing in the ring,” said Crawford about Egidijus Kavaliauskas. “I’m going to have to fill him out, and see what he brings to the table, and go from there,” said Crawford.

WBO mandatory Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 KOs) challenges Crawford this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden in New York. Boxing fans aren’t too complimentary of the little known 31-year-old Kavaliauskas, and that seems to bother Crawford. It means that he’s not going to get credit for beating him.

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