On September 13, Canelo Alvarez will look to record another career defining win.
Terence Crawford has had his next opponent in his sights for some time as he’s continued to move his way up through the weight classes with remarkable success.
While Crawford suffered several setbacks in his amateur career, ‘Bud’ has a perfect 41-0 pro record coming into the biggest fight of his career.
The same cannot be said for his opponent who has been beaten twice on the scorecards by two incredible technicians.
The only man to have faced both Canelo and Crawford has shared his thoughts on the matchup, as has the last man to emerge victorious against the Mexican star.
Dmitry Bivol says Terence Crawford needs to be mentally confident in his ability to compete at super middleweight
In an interview with Ring Magazine in February, Dmitry Bivol shared his initial thoughts on Canelo Alvarez facing Terence Crawford on September 13.
Bivol is the last man to beat the Mexican superstar, having convincingly won via the scorecards when they faced off in May of 2022.
That matchup saw Canelo being the smaller opponent as he looked to achieve more success at light heavyweight before dropping back down to super middleweight.
While Bivol takes a lot of different factors into account, he believes that Crawford is capable of getting the job done.
“He’s one of my favorite boxers. He’s able to win this fight but there is a lot of buts. There is a lot of small things which we don’t know how he will deal with this.”
Of course, a lot of the talk surrounding this fight will be over how Crawford will adapt to moving up to meet Canelo but Bivol believes there is more to this than just physicality.
He thinks that while ‘Bud’ has the frame to be able to make this move up, it’s the mental side of feeling comfortable at super middleweight that could be defining for him.
“It’s not about only getting used to the power, it’s also about being mentally ready. When people are not prepared mentally, they are afraid or scared, you become weak. Your body becomes weak. When something happens and it’s something new and you weren’t ready for it, we all know this feeling. The body starts melting, just soft, you know? Mentality is very important also for this fight.”
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Dmitry Bivol believes that everything needs to come together for Terence Crawford’s super middleweight move
As he stated when talking about Terence Crawford’s chances of winning, Dmitry Bivol believes that there are many unanswered questions that will be crucial on September 13.
One thing he doesn’t doubt is Crawford’s heart and desire to pull off what would be a truly remarkable feat in going up to super middleweight and beating Canelo Alvarez.
Bivol said that the biggest challenge awaiting ‘Bud’ is ticking off all those boxes so that when he steps in the ring on fight night, he’s completely confident in his ability to match his opponent, rather than being at a disadvantage due to the move up.
“He’s strong mentally and he wants this fight from the core, how I see it… We cannot just say only mentality or only sparring partners to get used to this weight. This is the combination of all of it.
“He needs to spar with bigger guys. He needs to get punches. He needs to be confident that he’s okay with these punches. He needs to be confident that he will go in the ring and he could get these punches from Canelo and he will be okay with this.”