Jermall Charlo Says Crawford is Making the Same Mistake as Jermell Against Canelo

Jermall Charlo says Terence Crawford is making the same mistake his brother, Jermell Charlo, made when he bulked up to go up from 154 to 168 to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his titles in 2023.

Jermell was too slow after putting on the weight and didn’t possess the same speed as he had when he was fighting at junior middleweight. Crawford’s frame is smaller than Jermell’s, and will be easy prey for Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KO) to knock chips off of in their fight on September 13th at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Jermall questions what Crawford’s overall goal is to go up to super middleweight for this fight. He notes that Crawford is NOT a 168-pounder, and he hasn’t fought in the weight class before. He didn’t want to take a tune-up. So, what’s his rationale?

“My brother fought Canelo, not me. I like Crawford in this fight, and he looked to stay big. But my brother even told me that’s the mistake that he made,” said Jermall Charlo to the media, talking about his brother, Jermell Charlo, putting on weight, moving up from 154 to challenge Canelo Alvarez in 2023.

We saw how Jermell gave up trying after he got hit with some shots early in the fight against Canelo two years ago. His own punches had no effect on the Mexican star, as his power didn’t carry up from 154. Crawford’s situation is even worse. He looked weak going up from 147 to 154 in his last fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.

“He thought going up in weight, ‘I got to get massive. I got to get big to beat Canelo.’ It made him slower. It made his reflexes slower. He’ll tell you himself. It made him slower. He didn’t feel like the Jermell Charlo that y’all have seen in fights. Crawford, I feel like the same thing is happening.”

Jermall is right. With the weight that Crawford has packed on in the last year, he’s going to be slow, sluggish, and an easy target for Canelo’s big power shots. Once Terence feels that power from the Mexican star, he’s going to be on his bike, pedaling as fast as he can to survive.

“You want to get big to try and absorb Canelo’s punches. But technically, that’s not the Crawford that we’re going to see. Crawford is going up to fight Canelo at 168 when he’s not a 168-pounder. Where is the motivation? Y’all got to think about it,” said Jermall.

It’s obvious what Crawford’s motivation is for him to go up to 168 to challenge Canelo. It’s money. He wants that retirement cash to live like a grand King in Omaha, Nebraska. Bud has already shown us that by his decision not to move up to 168 and get his feet wet first by fighting once before his September 13th fight.

It’s not like Crawford didn’t have the chance to fight and take a tune-up at 168. His last fight was on August 3rd against Israil Madrimov, which meant that he had 13 months of free time to take a warm-up clash at super middleweight against one of these contenders:

– Christian Mbilli
– Edgar Berlanga
– Osleys Iglesias
– Caleb Plant