Canelo Alvarez has pinpointed exactly where he went wrong against Terence Crawford, promising to rectify such mistakes and produce a more accomplished performance in his next outing.
The Mexican suffered a unanimous decision defeat to ‘Bud’ last September, losing his undisputed super-middleweight crown in convincing fashion.
Not only that, but Crawford was moving up two weight divisions following his points victory over Israil Madrimov, which saw him claim the WBA world super-welterweight title in August 2024.
The American was, in other words, a sizable pre-fight underdog against Canelo, who had remained unbeaten since getting unanimously outpointed by Dmitry Bivol in 2022.
On this occasion, it was not quite so one-sided but still, Crawford appeared the quicker and more skilful fighter through large spells of their contest.
Talks of a potential rematch were then scuppered after Crawford announced his retirement in December, meaning his four major titles at 168lbs all became vacant.
If a second encounter had remained on the table, though, then Canelo believes he would have made the necessary adjustments to emerge victorious.
In particular, the 35-year-old told Inside the Ring that he would not have focused so much on Crawford’s style, but rather on his own strengths.
“Sometimes your body doesn’t respond the way you want [it to]. But I know what my mistakes [were], and I can adapt everything to make everything perfect.
“I see a lot of mistakes I made; I tried to be faster for his style and everything. No, I just need to do my job and that’s it.”
Rather than rematching Crawford, Canelo is now gearing up to face WBC world super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on September 12.
