Canelo’s new physique impresses boxing fans before Terence Crawford fight

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez stunned fight fans with his hulking super-middleweight physique ahead of his pound-for-pound boxing clash against Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford, which headlines an event Netflix will air to a significant worldwide audience on Saturday, the 13th of September at the Allegiant Stadium — home of NFL franchise Las Vegas Raiders — in the Fight Capital of the World.

Canelo has competed in the 168-pound weight class since 2018, taking on and beating the likes of Billy Joe Saunders, Caleb Plant, and Gennadiy Golovkin, among others, unifying all the world super middleweight belts, to go along with the titles he picked up in three other weight classes.

Crawford, like Canelo, is a staple of the pound-for-pound rankings because of his world title wins in four separate divisions, and the all-time great thrashing he gave Errol Spence Jr. in their highly-anticipated all-American clash to determine the No.1 fighter at 147 pounds. His fight against Canelo is in a division 21 pounds higher than the signature win of his career, and if the photographs below of Canelo are anything to go by, he has his work cut out for him to stay competitive with Mexico’s bruising body-puncher.

Canelo Stuns Boxing Fans With New Physique

One of the more obvious differences between Crawford and Canelo in this match-up is that ‘Bud’ has no time to adjust to super middleweight, having only ever competed as high as super welterweight (154 pounds) before. And he’s only fought at that weight once. Canelo, by contrast, is fully established at the weight as the Crawford super-fight will be his 12th in that division.

In boxing, weight matters. The weight classes exist for a reason, and there is a saying that a good big guy beats a big smaller guy. And, considering how fighting-fit Canelo looks in recent images he’s uploaded to Instagram, the comment section appears to agree.

Many fans, most of whom commented in the Spanish language, dubbed Canelo “el rey,” which means the king, as well as “el campeon,” which means the champion. They all tipped him to beat Crawford when he is in this condition. “The GOAT is winning against Crawford,” said one fight fan. “Crawford is COOKED!,” said another.

Not everyone was sold, though. One fans said: “I don’t know, man, Bud is looking strong.” Comments like this appear to reference the physique that Crawford has shown in his social media updates, one of which GIVE ME SPORT reported here.