Malignaggi Explains Why A Mayweather-esque Crawford Could Shock Canelo In September

Paulie Malignaggi believes Terence Crawford has a good chance of beating unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in their fight in September. He says he initially didn’t think Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) could win due to him being “too small,” but he feels that Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) is no longer in his prime.

Malignaggi states Crawford has a fighting style similar to Floyd Mayweather Jr, and he feels that Canelo gave up when he lost to him in their fight in 2013. The Mexican star is a lot stronger than he was back then, and there won’t be a catchweight to weaken him like there was back then.

Crawford’s Hunger

Paulie says Crawford is hungry, giving him a good shot at defeating Canelo. Obviously, he must not be that hungry to sit inactive for a solid year since his last fight. Crawford may have been afraid to fight for fear of losing to one of the junior middleweights, and then his big payday against Canelo disappearing. Terence didn’t want to test himself at 168, which is understandable if he was worried about getting beat.

“I originally thought Crawford was too small. I think Crawford was a way more complete fighter than Canelo ever was. It’s not out of the question (that Terence wins),” said Paulie Malignaggi to Fighthypediscussing the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford that is expected to occur in September.

Crawford might be too small to stay in the pocket, and battle Canelo the way he’ll need to have a chance of winning. He looked weak in his debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov, and was consistently out-punched by the much stronger-looking WBA champion. Moving up two divisions to face an even more powerful Canelo, it doesn’t look good for Crawford.

Canelo’s Decline

“This Canelo is not the prime Canelo. This Canelo is trying to steal bags while half-a***** it,” said Malignaggi. “When Canelo has been put in tough situations where he had to dig down, what has he done? He hasn’t really dug down and gone for broke in fights where he was losing.”

“He just kind of accepted the loss. We saw that against Floyd (Mayweather Jr.) too (as well as against Dmitry Bivol). He never really took a risk in the Floyd fight when he was outclassed. He just accepted it. Ever since (the Bivol fight), he dropped the level of his opposition tremendously,” said Paulie about Canelo.

You can give Canelo a pass for his losses to Mayweather and Bivol because he was in a tough position. When he fought the still prime version of Mayweather in 2013, he was only 22 years old. He made things worse for himself by agreeing to a 152-lb catchweight. At the weigh-in, Canelo looked drained and needed to sit down to gather himself. He did not look well.

“He (Crawford) is a guy that reminds me of Floyd and is hungry, motivated and wants to be the best,” said Malingaggi. “He has that mean streak in the ring. Crawford wants to go for that gusto. That doesn’t mean Crawford wins because he’s small. I believe more now that Crawford can win than when it was first talked about.”

You can’t say that Crawford wants to fight the best because ever since his fight with Madrimov, he’s shown no interest in fighting any of the other guys at 154. That shows that he realizes he reached his limits, and if he fought the other top fighters, he knows he’d lose. So, you can’t say that he always wants to reach for the “gusto,” because his resume is too weak to prove that. Crawford only has wins over Errol Spence and Madrimov to prove that he’s fought the best.

He didn’t want to move up to 168 to test himself. If Terence really believed in himself, he’d have done so. Crawford knows his limits, and just wants the payday against Canelo rather than testing himself.

“I would love to see Crawford win because if Canelo gets this payday, which is going to be a big payday,” said Malignaggi.  “If he also gets the win out of it, it’s too much of a reward for ducking Benavidez and being allowed to duck the mandatory contender and holding all the belts hostage for so long and not allowing that weight class run its course like it should.”

Legacy or Payday?

If you look at it from a neutral standpoint without anger at either fighter, it looks like Crawford isn’t going to win due to his experience at 168, lack of power, and age. Also, he may be taking this fight for all the wrong reasons by moving up to fight Canelo for the payday, not for the sake of his legacy.

Crawford says he’s done it for legacy purposes, but that sounds like hogwash. If he were doing it for that reason, he’d have moved up and fought one of the top contenders like David Benavidez, David Morrell or Diego Pacheco. This is more about money.

“I think for the better of boxing, Crawford wins because he went about his career the right way by trying to chase the best all the time. I feel he’s constantly testing himself. That Madrimov fight was very impressive. Madrimov is a very good fighter. That fight was neck and neck. It could have been a draw. That was high-level chess.

“To be able to hold that concentration in your mid-30s against this young, high IQ fighter with explosive and naturally bigger fighter, that was impressive to me. He (Crawford) maybe too small for Canelo, but he’s definitely nowhere near the ability Crawford is.

“He maybe better than Canelo out of the right-handed stance, and that’s not his stance. Crawford is mainly a southpaw. Crawford is more versatile in one stance than Canelo is, but is he too small? One thing I noticed in the Madrimov fight is Crawford had to give more ground than he usually does. Canelo, in the Golovkin rematch, he pressed. One thing Canelo does well is he cuts off the ring well. Can you take away the spacing of the smaller guy (Crawford) because he’s going to need spacing because he’s so much smaller. I don’t know,” said Malignaggi.