Canelo’s toughest opponent reveals the fatal error Terence Crawford must avoid if he is to beat the pound-for-pound star

Erislandy Lara issues critical warning to Terence Crawford ahead of Canelo fight

Ahead of their blockbuster brawl, Crawford has been given advice by none other than Erislandy Lara, one of Canelo’s toughest opponents.

Lara faced Canelo in 2014, and lost in an extremely tight split-decision. The fight remains one of the most contested of Canelo’s career, alongside the Gennadiy Golovkin fights.

According to BoxRec, the average score from 89 members of the media was a 114-114 draw. Canelo, who Bruce Carrington called lazy recently, won on 34 cards, Lara on 30, and 25 couldn’t separate the pair.

Now, years later, Lara spoke to FightHype.com on the one thing Crawford must not allow Canelo to do in their fight.

The interviewer translated Lara’s words, “[Lara] remembers [Canelo] used his legs real good and as long as Crawford uses his legs and doesn’t let Canelo just hit him in the arms and beat him up in the arms, he has a very good chance.”

Lara also said of the fight, in the interviewer’s words, “He sees it as a very interesting 50/50 fight, he feels that Canelo’s very strong right now and wants to see how Crawford will handle the power, especially in the early rounds.”

Lara defeated Danny Garcia in his latest fight at the age of 42.

Canelo could face Diego Pacheco, Christian Mbilli, Hamzah Sheeraz, or Chris Eubank Jr. next if he beats Crawford.

Canelo’s former opponent showed brutal injury after facing the star

One man who could’ve done with Lara’s warning regarding arm punches is British boxer, Callum Smith, who faced Canelo in 2020.

Smith lost the fight via unanimous decision, but became one of a few British fighters to go the distance with the Mexican.

Following the fight, Smith showed off some serious swelling to his arm after Canelo had targeted it for the entire fight in a bid to neutralize Smith’s arsenal of weapons.

Smith has since lost to Artur Beterbiev and beaten Joshua Buatsi.