Crawford needs 164 pounds against Canelo, says McKenna

Middleweight Aaron McKenna says Terence Crawford would be a better fight for Canelo Alvarez if the fight were made at a catchweight of 164 instead of 168.

(Credit: Mark Robinson/Matchroom)

He faced Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and was impressed with his technical skills and power. However, McKenna believes the power and size of unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) would be a problem for Terence unless he agreed to go a little lower at a fixed weight.

164 For a fair fight

Canelo isn’t likely to agree to give the 37-year-old Crawford a handicap because he would be the star of their fight, and there’s no reason for him to help the smaller fighter to give him an advantage. Crawford has talked about wanting to move up to super middleweight to challenge Canelo for his three titles for “legacy” purposes, but if he doesn’t fight at heavyweight at 168 pounds, that tarnishes him.

If Crawford really wants the fight with Canelo, he will agree to go up to 168 to challenge him. It would be useless for him to wait for a handicap to be placed on him.

“Canelo is the strongest fighter in the world at 168 at that weight. “If it was at a reduced weight, I think it would be a really good fight at 164,” Aaron McKenna told Sean Zittel about Terence Crawford having a better chance of defeating Canelo Alvarez if he is handicapped by contests being held four pounds below the 168-pound limit.

“Crawford definitely has the skills to cause you a lot of problems, and he has the timing and the range. It’s just that he can withstand Canelo’s strength, but I think it would be a very good fight. 168, yes, but I think it would be even better if it had a fixed weight so it would be more in play.

“It’s hard to catch him. You have to be calculated. You can’t fall short. You can’t overdo it. It has to be a perfect fight,” McKenna said of Crawford.