By Allan Fox: Keyshawn Davis predicts that Terence Crawford will beat Canelo Alvarez at 168 if he can handle his power. Crawford (40-0,31 KOs), who is no spring chicken at 36, would be moving up 21 lbs to challenge King Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) for his undisputed super middleweight crown.
Here’s the disappointing part. If Crawford were to defeat Canelo, he’d likely flee to the safety of the 147 or 154 divisions rather than risk his hide against the venomous Stonefish-esque David Benavidez & David Morrell. Pick your poison. They’re both as lethal as they come for the 168-lb division.
Those two would be all over Crawford, testing his chin and sending him back to the safety of the shallows at welterweight or junior middleweight with his first loss.
If Crawford was seriously interested in fighting Canelo, he’d first move up to 160 and take on Janibek Alimkhanuly. Then, if Crawford passed that test, he should move up to 168 and face Benavidez and/or Morrell.
Assuming Crawford gets through one or both of those guys with his unbeaten record still intact, he’d be ready to meet with the King Canelo.
It would be asking a bit much of Crawford to expect him to take on Dmitry Bivol, but if he wanted to go to cement his position to get a fight with Canelo, fighting the unbeaten WBA light heavyweight champion would be the way to go. Canelo would feel indebted to Crawford if he took care of his Bivol problem.
“Canelo is great. The way he uses his feints to set shots up at certain angles where he positions his body to where he knows he can hit that person, but that person can’t hit him,” said Keyshawn Davis to Fighthype about Canelo Alvarez.
“I don’t know. I think he can beat Canelo,” said Keyshawn when asked if Crawford can beat Canelo. I think your real question is how much is that weight going to affect him. Is that weight going to Affect him? I don’t know. I
think that’s a question all of us just have to wait and see, even for him. He never did the s**t.”
On a side note: Keyshawn is friends with Crawford, so you have to factor into the equation with his prediction. I don’t know why Keyshawn didn’t take it a step further by saying Crawford cleans house at 168, beating Benavidez, Morrell, and then Bivol at 175.
“Like he said. He wants to challenge himself and move up [to 168] and do that. Now, do I think can he beat Canelo? Yes, he can beat Canelo. I honestly just think he just can box Canelo. He could be a smaller, slicker boxer.
“I think Terence just has more athletic ability still than Canelo, and Terence has got that heart; he got that dog in him. Like we all know how Terence coming he going to go in there. He’s going to fight Canelo.
“If you got a guy that just can box and just move around & move with the power, I think Terence definitely can beat Canelo. I don’t think it’s a long shot at all.
“It will be a long shot only if he can’t stand Canelo’s power. He really can’t stand it, but as rounds go on, if he’s withstanding and standing there, I think he beats Canelo,” said Keyshawn.
