Crawford pointed to Canelo Alvarez vs Edgar Berlanga as the moment he made that call.
“When I was at 147, I was already calling out Canelo. I was already saying I’ll move up three weight classes and fight Canelo,” Crawford said to Jai McAllister. “Me and Turki went to watch him fight Berlanga, and I said, ‘He can’t beat me.’”
Berlanga entered as a heavy underdog and lacked the movement or output usually needed to trouble Canelo. Even so, Canelo could not break him down quickly, working in short bursts rather than sustained pressure.
Crawford treated that as a sign of something deeper. From 2021 to 2025, Canelo Alvarez held all four titles at 168 but was not consistently facing the most dangerous threats in the division.
Younger fighters such as Osleys Iglesias, Christian Mbilli, and Diego Pacheco represented a different type of challenge, built on volume, physicality, and pace.
Instead, Canelo’s run included an older Gennadiy Golovkin, John Ryder, and Berlanga, opponents who did not force him into extended exchanges or test his ability to deal with sustained movement.
Crawford made a call that those habits would carry into their fight. When they met in September 2025, he controlled distance, stepped around exchanges, and prevented Canelo from setting his feet.
Canelo was reduced to single shots, while Crawford dictated the pace across long stretches, leading to a unanimous decision win and all four super middleweight titles changing hands.
Crawford did not just believe he could win. He read a pattern, trusted it would hold, and proved it against a different level of opponent.
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