Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford: Tale of the Tape

Partner Authors Published: Jun 09 2025 13:16

Undisputed middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez puts his belts on the line against Terence Crawford in a monster of a fight in Las Vegas in September, when the unbeaten American steps up to super middleweight in an attempt to become a five-division champion.

This super fight has been a while in the making and is one of the most eagerly-anticipated bouts of the year.

Who will prevail? Let’s look at the 'Tale of the Tape'...

	Canelo Alvarez	Terence Crawford
Odds:	-180	+145
Age:	34	37
Nickname:	Cinnamon	Bud
Height:	5' 7.5"	5' 8"
Reach:	70.5"	74"
Weight:	Middleweight	Lightweight/Middleweight
Trainer:	Eddy Reynoso	Brian McIntyre
Record:	63-2-2 (39 KOs)	41-0 (31 KOs)
Last Fight:	Won vs William Scull (UD, May 3rd 2025)	Won vs Israil Madrimov (UD, August 3rd 2024)

Canelo Alvarez profile

63-2-2 (39 KOs)

Canelo Alvarez has had a fantastic career, fighting and beating some top talent such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., Gennady Golovkin, Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr down the years.

He remains one of the best fighters on the planet, but has not stopped an opponent inside the distance since 2021 and is sure to be tested in September against the very dangerous Crawford.

Alvarez's last fight against a truly top-level opponent was a win over a then-40-year-old Gennady Golovkin in May 2022 in their third meeting.

Looking further back, though, Alvarez suffered the first loss of his career in his 44th career fight, when he took on Mayweather Jr in September 2013, the outcome being a mixed decision win for the American, who took Alvarez's light middleweight title.

However, he bounced back well, winning his next seven fights, which included victories over James Kirland, Cotto, Amir Khan, Liam Smith and Chavez Jr.

His successes over Cotto and Smith sealed two middleweight belts and one light middleweight belt and, after beating Chavez Jr., he fought Golovkin, who had a 37-0 record (33 KOs) at the time.

The two fought to a split decision draw in their first showdown in September 2017, before meeting again one year later, where Canelo won via mixed decision to win the middleweight championship.

Alvarez then moved up to the super middleweight division and beat Rocky Fielding for the WBA title in 2018, before he overcame Daniel Jacobs for the IBF belt in 2019.

Alvarez became the undisputed champion at super middleweight when he beat Billy Joe Saunders for the WBO belt in 2021 and since then he has successfully defended the undisputed super middleweight title seven times.

His one blemish since becoming champion was in a different division, when he went down to Dmitry Bivol via unanimous decision for the WBA light heavyweight title in 2022.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Versatile	Slow body movement
Great counter-puncher	Weak jabber at times
Head movement
Timing

Terence Crawford profile

41-0 (31 KOs)

Crawford is three years older than Alvarez, but the Mexican superstar has been more active than his opponent in recent years.

The four-division champion, who has held championship belts at lightweight, light welterweight, welterweight and light middleweight, won his first title - the WBO lightweight belt - in 2014 with a ninth-round knockout win over Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Victory over Ray Beltran after that secured him The Ring magazine's lightweight belt and he overcame Thomas Dulorme for the WBO light welterweight belt.

In 2016, Bud beat Viktor Postol for the WBC and The Ring light welterweight titles, unifying the belts and becoming the lineal division champion in the process, while cementing his status as one of the best around.

The following year, Crawford became the light welterweight undisputed champion when seeing off Julius Indongo via a third-round KO to claim the WBA and IBF belts.I

Next came a welterweight success over Jeff Horn for the WBO belt via a ninth-round KO. Crawford successfully retained it in his next six bouts, which included getting the better of such talented opponents as Jose Benavidez Jr., Amir Khan, and Kell Brook.

The US star became the undisputed welterweight champion with his ninth-round TKO win over Errol Spence Jr. in July 2023, and then stepped up in weight yet again in 2024 to beat Israil Madrimov via unanimous decision for the WBA and WBO interim light middleweight titles.