Commentator Max Kellerman states that Terence Crawford checks all the boxes for having the advantage over undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez for their September 13th fight in Las Vegas.
He states that the one area where Terence is lacking is size. Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) is bigger and could be a harder puncher. Kellerman isn’t sure about that because he hasn’t seen if Crawford’s power has increased with him bulking up for his fight against Canelo at Allegiant Stadium.
The Speed of Two P4P Kings
“You would imagine Crawford because he’s the naturally smaller fighter, and I would assume that he would maintain that advantage going into this fight,” said commentator Max Kellerman to Ring Magazine when asked who has the faster hand speed between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
In Crawford’s last fight against Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024, his hand speed wasn’t extraordinary. The two looked to be of equal hand speed. In his prime, 10+ years ago, Crawford had good hand speed, but it wasn’t on the level of fighters from the past era, Floyd Mayweather Jr. or Manny Pacquiao. After 17 years as a professional, Crawford’s speed was average and not exceptional.
“They both have sky-high ring IQs. Crawford. There’s a reason I think Crawford is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, and Canelo once was. Crawford is biologically older [turns 38 on September 28, 2025],” said Kellerman.
Lack of Big-Name Opponents
It’s impossible to gauge how good Crawford is because his resume lacks the big names required to place him high on a pound-for-pound list. When he did move up to 154, where there were real challenges, he quickly took the Canelo fight after just one closely contested fight against Madrimov.
If Crawford had stayed at 154 to test himself against the elite fighters in the division, fans and the people who create the pound-for-pound lists would be able to identify if he is worthy of being placed high on the list. Terence came close to losing to Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2023, winning by the scores 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112. What would have happened if Crawford had stayed to fight Vergil Ortiz Jr, Bakhram Murtazaliev, Abass Baraou, and Sebastian Fundora?
“Canelo has had the longer career. He’s been fighting since he was a teenager [Alvarez turned professional on October 29, 2005, at age 15]. And there have been signs recently that maybe he’s not the same guy as he used to be,” said Kellerman.
Canelo and Crawford are both coming off lackluster performances. Crawford narrowly beat WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024. In contrast, Canelo defeated IBF super middleweight champion William Scull by a 12-round unanimous decision in a low-output fight for him. Canelo threw just 152 punches the entire fight. That averages out to be 12.67 punches per round.
Kellerman’s Pick: Crawford’s Advantages
“If you look at all the boxes, I’m going to check Crawford for most of them, if not all of them. But the reason Canelo is favored is that he does a lot of things at a very high level, and he’s a naturally bigger guy,” said Kellerman.
Crawford is moving up essentially three weight classes to fight Canelo at 168. Kellerman doesn’t mention this, nor does he point out that Crawford chose not to take a tune-up at super middleweight to give himself some experience during the last year when he could have done this.
Canelo is not only the bigger guy, he’s the more experienced one of the two against higher-quality opposition. Crawford’s resume lacks the names that Canelo’s possesses.
Is Crawford Truly the Best?
Once you get past Israil Madrimov and Yuriorkis Gamboa on Crawford’s resume, there’s not much to be seen. The names on Terence’s record were those of older fighters nearing the end of their careers. He fought these fighters at the end of their careers:
– Errol Spence
– Shawn Porter
– Ricky Burns
– Kell Brook
– Amir Khan
– Yuriorkis Gamboa
– Raymond Beltran
Last Updated on 08/27/2025
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