CANELO ALVAREZ VS TERENCE CRAWFORD - FULL FIGHT BREAKDOWN AND MAIN CARD PREVIEW

It’s the fight that many believed we would never see and many believed was impossible to make.

Two pound-for-pound generational greats putting it all on the line in their bid to be the undisputed super-middleweight champion of the world.

If you’d told a majority of boxing fans eight years ago that the then 160lbs world champ Canelo Álvarez would be defending his undisputed 168lbs crown against the then undisputed 140lbs champ in Terence Crawford, they’d probably have laughed at you. However, this weekend, the pair go glove-to-glove in Las Vegas as they aim to write their names down in the history books as two of the greatest fighters ever to have stepped foot in the squared circle.

Both fighters go into the fight in solid form.

Since suffering defeat to Dmitry Bivol, Álvarez has maintained his unbeaten record at super-middleweight with six straight unanimous decision victories over the likes of Gennadiy Golovkin, Jaime Munguía and John Ryder, just to name a few.

The undefeated Crawford hasn’t looked too shabby of late either. Forty-one wins from forty-one fights: he obliterated rival Errol Spence Jr to become undisputed at 147lbs and then edged past the talented Israil Madrimov when moving up to 154lbs in his last fight.

Two men who, arguably on their day, are the best active fighters on the planet right now.

So, to the fight — and my word, this is a tough one to pick.

There are so many narratives and subplots to this fight, we could well make this breakdown 10,000 words long — but don’t worry, we won’t.

The first narrative, and probably the biggest, is the weight.

When Terence Crawford steps on the scales on Friday night, he’ll have gone up three weight divisions and 21lbs in the space of two fights.

Crazy, we know.

He was never the biggest welterweight, he was certainly not the biggest super-welterweight, but if the photos that have come out of his camp in the build-up to this fight aren’t edited, he’ll arguably be just as big a super-middle as Canelo is.

He’s ripped, his back is absolutely enormous, and his thighs could be mistaken for a rugby player’s.

Canelo himself is by no means the biggest of super-middles, especially standing at under 5’8”, but what he is that Crawford isn’t, is an established super-middleweight.

He’s used to making 12 stone, having fought at the weight on no fewer than 11 occasions, compared to Crawford’s none.

That will be a factor in the fight, it has to be.

It’ll be more about what Crawford has sacrificed to gain size, and whether he will still be able to carry his speed and power up.

If he can, then it’ll make things extremely interesting — especially when the pair get in close.

The second subplot is activity. Canelo has been a lot busier than the American over the past two years, having fought four times compared to Crawford’s two.

Whether you believe in ring rust or not, this will play a massive factor. Crawford cannot afford to let Canelo get into a rhythm early, so he’ll have to shake that rust off as quickly as he can and look to establish that boomerang-like southpaw jab.

The third subplot is the age of these two and the miles on the clock they have.

Crawford may be just under three years older, but in terms of miles on the clock, it’s Canelo who you’d say has the disadvantage in that department.

Canelo has fought over double the amount of rounds as a professional that Crawford has, having boxed 520 rounds compared to Crawford’s 245, and no matter what people think, that’s going to play a part in the fight.

The Mexican has had more gruelling fights too: the GGG trilogy, which was basically 36 rounds of pure legalised violence; the Bivol and Mayweather defeats where he was on the wrong end of two boxing clinics; five really tough fights that will have taken a lot out of the tank of Canelo — especially considering how young he was when he made his professional debut.

You can make a case that, aside from the Madrimov fight, Crawford has never really had to get out of fourth gear.

He was involved in a good fight with Shawn Porter before his corner told him to move into fourth gear — and before you knew it, the fight was over.

So where will the fight be won and lost? It all depends on who can control the centre of the ring really.

Both can counter-punch extremely well and both can box on the front foot really well. They’ll likely cancel each other out in the early rounds as they download the data, but once one of them starts to get the initiative, expect the other to respond.

It may turn out to be a case of both fighters winning a few rounds on the bounce, then the other one finding a response and gaining some momentum, and so on.

If their last performances are anything to go by, both need to be busy. William Scull was, to put it politely, a complete pain in the arse for Canelo — and that wasn’t a true reflection of where Canelo is at. But one thing it did show us is that the once unbreakable mentality of Canelo may well be breakable after all — and a fighter like Terence Crawford will most certainly exploit that.

As previously mentioned, the fight will likely depend on how well Crawford carries his weight. If he’s still lightning quick with his hands and feet, he’ll be an absolute nightmare for Canelo — but as physics suggests, he’ll likely have slowed down to some degree.

This is where Canelo needs to make the fight his. He needs to make it uncomfortable for Crawford. He needs to be dirty in the exchanges, throw the American off his game plan, use that established super-middleweight strength to lean on him, and make him wish he’d stayed at 11 stone.

It could work against him though. If Crawford is savvy enough — which he has it in the locker to be — he can mentally break Canelo to the point where his game plan goes out of the window.

If someone wins the early rounds convincingly, don’t get too carried away and expect the fight to go one way.

These are two elite-level operators who have fair arguments for being the greatest pound-for-pound fighter of this generation, so they’re going to adapt.

Don’t be surprised if this is super tight on the scorecards come the end of the fight, and do not be surprised to see these two run it back in 2026 — it really is going to be that close.

Now to the undercard, where there are some absolutely INSANE match-ups.

The chief support is another super-middleweight showdown between the hard-hitting Christian Mbilli and the equally hard-hitting Guatemalan Lester Martínez.

A combined record of 48-0 with 40 stoppages between them, this’ll be a fight that delivers.

Both can box, but both can be erratic at times — which only makes for one thing: box office boxing, and don’t we just love it.

This fight will likely come down to who wants it more, and who can take the most punishment and keep moving forward. If these two meet in the middle, it’s potentially a guaranteed fight of the year winner.

Prior to that, in another battle of two hard-hitting undefeated contenders, Ireland’s Callum Walsh aims to enhance his claims as a future P4P star against Fernando Vargas Jr, the son of the great Fernando Vargas.

Having been backed by Dana White early on in his career, Walsh has made steady progress since his move to America with 11 stoppages coming from his 14 wins to date.

He’s no notable names on his résumé as of yet, and the fight against Vargas is a huge step up — but the step up he’s needed on the biggest stage.

Similar to Walsh, Vargas Jr has impressed many with his slick boxing and power in both hands.

He’s now 17-0 with 15 knockouts and has been nurtured the right way, like Walsh, and that career path sets up this fight to be a potential fight-of-the-night contender.

Both lads are full of confidence, both don’t know how to lose, and both are well aware that victory here could well put them right in the mix for a world title shot in their next fight.

The thing that we believe might be the defining factor in this fight is the amateur background of Walsh.

He was far more established in the unpaid ranks, having fought the likes of Aidan Walsh and Pierce O’Leary.

That amateur pedigree may prove to be vital, but one thing is for sure: both of these young men will leave it all in the ring.

In a rematch of arguably the biggest upset of 2021, Serhii Bohachuk looks to right his wrongs against the experienced Brandon Adams.

When the pair first clashed back in March of 2021, Bohachuk was one of the hottest properties in boxing with 18 wins from 18 fights, all by knockout.

Adams was well respected and seen as a good step up, but he had already had three losses on his record and wasn’t expected to pose any serious threat to the Ukrainian — but was expected to ask questions.

Questions he did ask — and those questions did not get an answer.

Bizarrely, the American didn’t fight for three years after that fight and has only fought three times since. In the meantime, Bohachuk got his career back on track with eight wins from nine — that only defeat coming in controversial fashion to Vergil Ortiz Jr.

Once again, the Ukrainian is the big favourite, and rightly so. You’d be crazy to write off Adams again, but a lot has gone on in those four years. Bohachuk, who is still only 30, is now arguably twice the fighter he was back then — whereas you could argue that due to his inactivity, having fought three times since compared to Bohachuk’s nine, Adams looks like he is on the decline.

The American will be a tough man to stop, but Bohachuk will more than likely just have too much power and too much freshness for him this time around.

To the final fight on the main card — and by a distance, the heaviest — where the undefeated Kazakh man-mountain Ivan Dychko takes on the tough American Jermaine Franklin Jr.

An elite amateur, Dychko won bronze at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics before turning pro in 2017.

He has wins over the likes of Efe Ajagba, Filip Hrgović, Zhilei Zhang and two-time Olympic gold medallist Bakhodir Jalolov in the unpaid ranks, but he has been unable to gain any real momentum as a professional.

He’s very much become a mainstay in the “who needs them?” club, having stopped 14 of his 15 opponents to date and not having a big promoter backing him.

Now 35, if father time isn’t on his side, then it soon will be — so it may well be a case of now or never for the Kazakh giant.

Compared to Dychko, Jermaine Franklin Jr has had a much different career inside the ropes. With no massive amateur background, he won his first 21 fights as a pro before losing back-to-back fights to Dillian Whyte and Anthony Joshua — two fights in which he certainly did not disgrace himself.

He’s got back into the win column with two straight wins; however, he hasn’t fought in nearly 18 months, which could be a really big problem for him.

The bookies have this fight close — really close — and it’s easy to see why.

Franklin Jr is a massive step up for Dychko, and if he can box similarly to the way he did against Joshua and Whyte, he might end up having just too much experience and professional prowess for the Kazakh.

If Dychko does win this fight, and wins it in style, it’ll be an enormous statement — and one that could well end up getting him in the mix for a world title.

An incredible card with an incredible main event — do not miss it this Saturday live on Netflix.