Terence Crawford’s Coach Is Looking to History While the Fighter’s Own Recent Struggles Provide a More Realistic Outlook

Terence Crawford’s coach, Jacqui ‘Red’ Spikes, says Crawford’s skills will enable him to overcome the size of undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13.

Spikes uses Sugar Ray Leonard’s victory over Marvin Hagler and Oleksandr Usyk’s wins against larger foes at heavyweight as examples for why Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will overcome his size disadvantage to defeat Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) in their contest at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“Littler guys with more skills have beaten bigger guys over the years. Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler,” said coach Jacqui ‘Red’ Spikes to Fighthype, giving his rationale for why the smaller Terence Crawford will beat Canelo Alvarez in their clash in 10 days on September 13.

There are two main differences between what Sugar Ray Leonard did in defeating the WBC middleweight champion Marvin Hagler and what Crawford is doing, jumping up two weight classes to challenge Canelo for his four belts at 168:

1. Age: Leonard was 30 years old when he defeated Hagler by a controversial 12-round split decision on April 6, 1987. Crawford is 37 and will be turning 38 on September 28. He’s much older than Leonard was. Bud is essentially eight years older than Sugar Ray was when he fought Marvin for his WBC middleweight belt.
2. Weight class: Sugar Ray moved up only one division from 154 to 160 for his clash against Leonard. Although Leonard started his career at 147, he’d moved up to junior middleweight before facing Hagler. He didn’t move up 2 to 3 divisions, like Crawford is doing in his title challenge against Canelo.
3. Previous Performance: In Leonard’s fight before facing Hagler, he’d looked like 24k gold at 154, defeating Kevin Howard by a ninth-round knockout on May 11, 1984. In contrast, Crawford didn’t look dominant in his last fight, making his debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov on August 3, 2024.

“Usyk is a smaller guy. He’s beaten bigger guys with his boxing. Skills pay the bills,” said Spikes. “It’s just about being prepared, having a good game plan, and having the right dog in the race.”

Oleksandr Usyk beat two faded British heavyweights, Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury, as well as the flawed Daniel Dubois. In my opinion, those fighters are not on the level of Canelo’s talent and achievement-wise. Alvarez’s resume has many more top names than those three fighters. Joshua and Fury’s best career win is arguably a faded Wladimir Klitschko, who was 40-ish when they fought him.

“Madrimov was a tricky style. He did a lot of feints. He wasn’t committing. He wasn’t patient. This is a completely different style from what Canelo is going to bring. So, Madrimov gave us a little bit of difficulty. He came to win. He came prepared, but we overcame the obstacle,” said Spikes.

I believe the reason Crawford struggled with Madrimov was this:

• Inactivity: Crawford had been inactive for 13 months prior to the Madrimov clash. Terence’s fight before that was against Errol Spence on July 29, 2023. Crawford’s chronic gaps of inactivity had started in November 2021 when he fought Shawn Porter. Before that fight, Crawford had last fought in November 2020 against Kell Brook.
• Getting older: At 36, Bud was beginning to show the signs of advanced age. In any sport, that’s an age where athletes begin showing serious decline. There aren’t many fighters still competing at 36. Those that do are often able to do so with the way their savvy promoters are maneuvering them.
• Weight Jump: Going up to 154, Crawford showed that he’d hit his ceiling physically and couldn’t dominate in the junior middleweight division like he’d done in the smaller weight classes. I believe it’s logical to assume that, if Terence had chosen to stay at 154, he would have suffered defeats repeatedly and slipped down in the pack if he’d fought the top fighters.