Roy Jones Jr. believes that Terence Crawford got one up on Canelo Alvarez ahead of fight night.
This past Saturday night in Las Vegas, Crawford defeated Alvarez in convincing fashion to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.
Both men have been two of the very best for a long time now.
This meant that there were so many interesting details to pay attention to before they stepped inside the ring at Allegiant Stadium.
While Jones Jr. believes that Crawford should retire after earning his biggest win, the boxing legend also believes that ‘Bud’ started to gain an edge ahead of fight night.
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Roy Jones Jr. believes that Terence Crawford got his first win over Canelo Alvarez in their stare down
In a recent episode of Hall of Game, Roy Jones Jr. gave his full thoughts on Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
The boxing legend chose to go back to something that he had spoken about in a previous episode that was recorded during fight week that had become even more relevant after the result.
Jones Jr. had drawn attention to the face-offs between them before Saturday night came around, though he admitted that he didn’t want to dive too deep into this at that stage.
After watching the performance that Crawford produced, he circled back to this, believing that ‘Bud’ secured an edge in this moment after Alvarez turned away from him first.
“In that stare down that we talked about, when I told you either he’s not ready for this or he’s trying to little boy Bud, he wasn’t trying to little boy Bud. He really was afraid, well not afraid, but he was worried about Bud.
“Bud knew that and Bud being the older guy, he looked him in his eye and made him turn away first. That was a victory for Bud. That was Bud’s first victory. Anytime that happens or something else doesn’t happen to undo that, you got a problem.”
Jones Jr. spoke from experience when recalling how his former opponent John Ruiz had impacted him during their press conference by taking him off guard.
He believes that moments like this are incredibly important, with Crawford showing Alvarez that he wasn’t going to back down from him in Las Vegas.
“When I saw Bud look at him like that and he turned away first, that sent shivers down my spine.”
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Andre Ward backed Roy Jones Jr.’s assessment of the stare down
Andre Ward agreed with Roy Jones Jr.’s analysis of this pre-fight interaction between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
Ward, who has argued that Crawford is the victim of a “smear campaign”, said that ‘Bud’ didn’t receive the same kind of reaction from the Mexican star that he usually gives to his toughest opponents.
“I don’t see Canelo do that with a lot of guys. I’ve seen him do that with that he’s sort of dismissive toward, guys that he knows, ‘I’m going to get you tomorrow night, thank you for taking a challenge but this is my show’.”
Ward also reflected on his own experience of moments like this, citing the head-to-head stare down that he had with Edison Miranda as a pivotal part of their fight which made him realize just how confident his opponent was.
“I just thought that to your point, Terence won that moment and those things matter.”