Teddy Atlas says Canelo Alvarez’s legacy has been “dented” by his defeat against Terence Crawford last week. He states that the only way Canelo (63-3-2, 39 KOs) can continue his career is to “right the wrong” by avenging the defeat against Crawford, if possible.
Of course, the defeat hurts Alvarez’s legacy. Losing to an older, inactive fighter who started his career out at lightweight puts a big dent in Canelo’s popularity with fans. What makes it even more telling is that Crawford was coming off a lackluster performance 13 months prior against Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024, in a fight that many fans felt he deserved to lose.
The combination of all those things suggests a couple of things:
- Canelo is a faded fighter: I believe Alvarez has been able to disguise his faded form in the last three years by fighting lower-tier contenders, Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga, and John Ryder.
- Bud is just as beatable: The way Crawford fought against Canelo, he’d likely lose to many, if not all, of the top 168-lb contenders, including the fighters at 160 and 154. I don’t think Crawford could best Christian Mbilli, Osleys Iglesias, Lester Martinez, or Hamzah Sheeraz at 168. He’s too weak, small, and unable to stand his ground and fight. He would have to do that to beat those fighters.
A Rematch Not Worth the Money
Even if Canelo wanted to, would Turki Alalshikh be willing to finance a rematch? Financially, it would not be worth it due to the huge purses that Alvarez and Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) would likely expect to receive.
Performance-wise, neither is worthy of the money they made last time. You can’t say that Crawford turned in a $50 million performance last week, and Canelo was nowhere near the level of a fighter who was paid $150 million. Turki would be better off going in a different direction rather than wasting money on a second Canelo-Crawford fight that fails to live up to the hype.
Crawford’s “Sink or Swim” Future
Fans would be more interested in seeing them move on if they fought fighters where they would be viewed as the underdogs. Throw Crawford in a sink or swim situation against one of these fighters:
- David Benavidez
- Dmitry Bivol
- Christian Mbilli
- Artur Beterbiev
Putting Crawford in with any of those three would be like feeding a pack of hungry wolves. I picture a scenario where those guys would have their ears pinned back, attacking Crawford relentlessly, chasing him around the ring in likely one-sided fights. It would be the survival of the fittest. The weak are picked off by the strong.
There would be so much drama and excitement in those fights, with fans wondering whether Crawford would get it or not.
New Challenges for an Underdog
With Canelo, he’d likely be the underdog at this point, merely fighting Hamzah Sheeraz. As bad as he looked against Crawford, I could see the oddsmakers making Sheeraz the favorite. Another option for Canelo would be to match him against the winner of the rematch between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn.
You can’t plug Canelo in with any of the top five contenders at 168 and expect him to come out of the fight with his hand raised in my estimation. I think it wouldn’t end well for Alvarez if you matched him against the top guys, the ones for whatever reason, he’s chosen not to fight in recent years.
“He lost to a guy [Terence Crawford] who won his first time at 135, and has been inactive. It does dent his legacy,” said podhost Teddy Atlas on his channel, talking about Canelo Alvarez’s loss to Terence Crawford a week ago.
The defeat exposed Canelo, putting a spotlight on him and his career. It strengthened the argument that some fans have that Alvarez was never as good as he was made out to be. He was a fighter who made controversial decisions in his fights against Gennadiy Golovkin (1 & 2) and Erislandy Lara.
Crawford did the minimum to earn his decision and was nowhere near as impressive as Lara and GGG were in their fights. The difference is that the set of judges gave Terence the decision, but not those fighters.
“Does he want to right a wrong? Is he concerned about his legacy?” said Atlas, questioning whether Canelo will push for the rematch with Crawford. “He drops down a notch from what we had him. The only reason for Canelo to continue is if he doesn’t want to go out this way. He looks to undo what was done in the Crawford fight.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Canelo has chosen not to rematch an opponent. After he lost to these two fighters, he never fought them to avenge his defeats:
- Dmitry Bivol [May 2022]
- Floyd Mayweather Jr [September 2013]
Was Lara More Impressive Than Crawford?
Some fans would add Erislandy Lara to the list of fighters who beat Canelo from their controversial fight on July 12, 2014. The judges gave Canelo a 12-round split decision, but many people, including myself, believed Erislandy was the winner.
A Hit-and-Run Fighting Style
The way Lara performed in that fight was arguably superior to how Terence Crawford did in his 12-round unanimous decision over Canelo. In my view, Lara looked more impressive outboxing a prime Canelo than Crawford, who mostly just ran around the ring, winning rounds by using a hit-and-run style.
In contrast, Erislandy stood in front of Canelo, jabbing him repeatedly, blocking and ducking his return fire. The Cuban Lara showed no fear and didn’t resort to running from Alvarez, which further sets his performance apart from how Crawford fought. Those two fights show how subjective scoring can be.
Last Updated on 09/20/2025
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