Middleweight Aaron McKenna says Terence Crawford would put up a better fight for Canelo Alvarez if the fight took place at a catchweight of 164 rather than 168.
(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom)
He sparred with Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and was impressed with his technical skills and power. However, McKenna believes that the power and size of unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) would be a problem for Terence unless he agreed to come down a little lower at a catchweight.
164 For a fair fight
Canelo is unlikely to agree to give Crawford, 37, a disadvantage because he would be the headliner of their fight and there is no reason to help the smaller fighter give him an advantage. Crawford has talked about wanting to move up to super middleweight to challenge Canelo for his three titles for “legacy” purposes, but not fighting at the full weight of 168 pounds puts a damper on that.
If Crawford wants the Canelo fight bad enough, he’ll agree to move up to 168 to challenge him. It would be pointless to expect him to be given a handicap.
“Canelo is the strongest fighter in the world at 168 at this weight. If he was at catchweight, I think it would be a very good fight at 164,” Aaron McKenna told the Sean Zittel about Terence Crawford having a better chance of beating Canelo Alvarez if he is given a handicap from fights held four pounds under the 168-lb limit.
“Crawford certainly has the skills to give him a lot of trouble and he has the timing and the range. Just if he can withstand Canelo’s power, but I think it would be a very good fight. 168, yes, but I think it would be even better if he was at catchweight to do it more down the line.
“He’s hard to catch. You have to be calculated. You can’t fall short. You cannot exceed. It should be perfect sparring,” McKenna said of Crawford.
