Why Canelo Alvarez will prove too much for Terence Crawford

Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford have finally announced the long-awaited and heavily hyped undisputed super middleweight title fight on 12th September at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Nevada.

It’s a huge event for boxing – putting two of its biggest names in Canelo and Bud against one another.

I think it’s fair to say that over recent years Saul Canelo Alvarez maybe isn’t the same force that he once was that tore through the super middleweight division. But, he is still a top fighter.

Yes his fight against William Scull was terrible, very boring, caused mainly by, I feel, the reluctance of Scull to engage.

I do feel that that fight did show a blueprint of how we’ll see Terence Crawford approach the Canelo fight.

It’s no secret that Canelo in the past has struggled against more slippery, well-schooled movers like Erislandy Lara, Caleb Plant at times and of course Floyd Mayweather Jr.

I think Terence Crawford will adopt these tactics similarly, boxing on the backfoot and looking to utilise his hand and foot speed, similar to how Jermell Charlo boxed against Canelo a couple of years ago.

Having said that, Terence Crawford is going to have to be braver than William Scull was and braver than Jermell Charlo was, and that is where he could get himself into trouble.

Canelo still carries legitimate punching power at 168 lbs and Crawford has never been hit by anybody above 154 lbs. He’s had only one fight at super welterweight against Israil Madrimov and he did look hesitant and wary of the natural size advantage of the Uzbek.

Canelo is 14 lbs heavier and can punch his weight.

I do feel like this is a much closer fight because of the decline in Canelo. I don’t expect it to necessarily be the most exciting fight due to the approach of Crawford and Canelo’s inability to cut the ring off, particularly later on in his career.

Having said that, it will be a huge spectacle in Las Vegas. It is the first TKO boxing event, the coalition between UFC’s supremo Dana White and Turki Alalshikh, so I’m expecting it to be a huge build-up which will gain cross-platform appeal and reach out to a wider audience than just your average boxing fan.

The announcement from Turki did also state that there’s no broadcast arrangement yet. This does indicate a potential deal with Netflix, following on from Jake Paul and Mike Tyson’s massive commercial success that they enjoyed.

TKO, of course owned by the same owners as the UFC and WWE, have a great relationship with Netflix, with the WWE broadcasted on Netflix.

Could we see Canelo v Crawford on Netflix in September? Watch this space.

Ultimately, it is a massive event between two of boxing’s best.

I do feel the natural size advantage of Canelo will see him emerge victorious in a probably less than entertaining fight.

I do expect Crawford to move on the back foot but ultimately not be busy enough to let his hands go without getting tagged by the naturally bigger man.

Still, a great event and a huge spectacle for boxing.

• Canelo Alvarez v Terence Crawford: All you need to know