Hamzah Sheeraz is predicting a “stoppage” win for Canelo Alvarez against Terence Crawford in their fight on September 13th in Las Vegas. He feels that there are “weight classes for a reason,” and thinks the two-division jump that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) will be making for this fight will be too much for his body to handle.
Age, Layoffs Hurt Crawford
Crawford isn’t young, turns 38 in September, and he’s been cheating his career as a part-time fighter since 2020. You can only get away with fighting on a once-a-year basis for so long before it catches up to you.
We saw that in Crawford’s last fight, coming off a 13-month layoff, making his debut at 154, and he barely won. Rather than staying at 154 to prove himself against the young lions, Crawford is moving two divisions for a fight against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs). It doesn’t look good for Terence.
Canelo’s Strength, Size Advantage
“My perspective on that is #1, there are weight classes for a reason,” said Hamzah Sheeraz to Fighthype when asked about his thoughts on Terence Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
We saw clearly in Crawford’s last fight at 154 that he’d reached his ceiling of what is possible for his frame. He wouldn’t be the dominant fighter at junior middleweight that he’d been at 147, 140, and 135 during his era. If he’d stayed at 154, he’d likely get beaten by the younger, physically bigger, and stronger fighters in that weight class.
Madrimov Exposed Crawford’s Ceiling
He won’t return to that division because the writing is on the wall. Israil Madrimov exposed him. Of course, Crawford wouldn’t move up to 160 to fight the champions in that division because it would be even worse for him. He’d be too small and old.
“And if we’re basing it on their last performances, Canelo had a better performance, I believe, even though he had a negative fighter [William Scull] in front of him,” said Hamzah. “And, I feel like Crawford struggled a little bit with [Israil] Madrimov’s physicality. Yeah, it was very physical, and I feel like he struggled with it.”
Sheeraz is putting it lightly when he says Crawford struggled against Madrimov. He was arguably beaten by him, but bailed out by the three judges working the fight. They scored it 115-113, 116-112, and 115-113 for Crawford.
I watched the fight and had it 7-5 for Madrimov [115-113]. He landed the cleaner, much harder punches in every round of the fight. Crawford threw many more punches than Madrimov, 433 to 275, but only landed 11 more. He had Terence mentally tied in knots.
Canelo’s Strength, Size Advantage
“You’ve got to remember. Canelo is a big dude. He’s strong,” said Sheeraz. “He knows how to use his size, but at the same time, at that level, you can’t write off fighters like Crawford because he’s so skillful. So, his going up two weights, he could defy the odds because he’s a generational great.”
Crawford may land more shots than Canelo, but it’ll be similar to his fight with Madrimov. His shots will be considerably weaker. The judges aren’t going to give Canelo the business because he’s a superstar. They’ll score it fairly and give him the decision. If you’re Crawford, you should be trying for a knockout because he’s not going to get a cheap win like he did in his last fight.
“But if I had to put my money on it, I’d put my money on Canelo to win via stoppage,” said Sheeraz.
It’s going to be difficult for Canelo to knock out Crawford because he’s likely going to be on the move for the full 12 rounds, following the William Scull blueprint on how to go the distance with the Mexican star. It’ll be ugly, but at least Crawford can claim a moral victory.
Last Updated on 06/30/2025
