Canelo Alvarez Could Do ‘Better’ Against Terence Crawford The Second Time, Says David Benavidez

Saúl ‘Canelo’ Álvarez (64-3-2, 39 KOs) once went into a yearlong hiatus after Terence Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) handed him the third loss of his professional career. But the second time could be different, says David Benavidez, but would it be enough?

Talking to FightHub TV, Benavidez admitted that while Alvarez’s performance will be better, it might still fall short.

“Canelo-Crawford II. I think that Canelo does better, but I don’t think that he goes in there and takes Crawford out,” he said.

Benavidez argues that even if Alvarez made the necessary adjustments in a rematch, he would still be fighting a stylistic problem that cannot easily be coached away. The issue, in his view, is not simply that Alvarez had an off night, but that Crawford’s ability to control distance and dictate the rhythm makes him an exceptionally difficult opponent to solve. Alvarez might come back with a more disciplined approach, put greater emphasis on cutting off the ring and try to make Crawford work at close quarters, but that does not necessarily mean he would be able to impose himself.

He believes Alvarez is capable of making a similar adjustment against Crawford, particularly now that he has had 12 rounds to study what went wrong. Benavidez also suspects Alvarez underestimated the challenge the first time around, perhaps allowing the fact that Crawford was moving up in weight to create a false sense of security. A second encounter, he argues, would be a different proposition.

“I think that it would be a close fight, but then also what I would be excited to see is how Crawford does with that [rematch] and if it is going to make him better, which I think it is because he is a great fighter, so it would be another great fight,” he said.

“Easy Money”

According to Benavidez, Canelo might have been a tad bit overconfident approaching the fight, especially because he was coming from a 6-fight winning streak.

“I think that what happened is, from him coming up three weight classes, Canelo even had that ‘easy money’ shirt on; I think he let that get to his head,” he said. “That is just from my perspective; that is just what it looked like to me. Canelo is a smart guy; he takes information from a fighter really well, so obviously, having been through that first fight, I am sure that he would take a lot of the stuff that Crawford was having success with and try to neutralize it.”

Abraham Gonzalez

Abraham Gonzalez is a 2x award-winning writer, International Boxing Hall of Fame voter, founder and publisher of FightsATW. His journalistic work has been published and used across several platforms, including online, network TV, and promotional companies. He is an alumnus of an American Public University and a full member of the Boxing Writers Association of America (BWAA). Abraham was the Managing Editor for NYFights, Big Fight Weekend, and contributed to The Ring Magazine, FanSidedMMA, and ProBoxTV.

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