Roy Jones Jr. And Shane Mosley Disagree Over Canelo Vs. Crawford

Roy Jones Jr. and Shane Mosley have given conflicting comments over whether weight will be an issue in the Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford fight. 

Canelo defends his Undisputed Super Middleweight Title on September 13, while Crawford moves up two weight divisions. The major talking coming into the fight is the weight. Canelo is a seasoned 168-pound fighter, who has also boxed at 175 pounds, where he won a title by stopping Sergey Kovalev to claim the WBO belt.

Meanwhile, Crawford has boxed mostly at 140 and 147, as he enters this bout with a sole fight at 154. While he defeated Israil Madrimov to become the WBA champion, Madrimov landed numerous right hands to the point some had Madrimov winning. Jermell Charlo moved up two weight classes to face Canelo in 2023, losing a unanimous decision. He looked much slower, while his power did not translate at 168.

Given Charlo had boxed more at 154 before moving up, Bud faces a tough task. However, Roy Jones did not see the weight as the problem. He was adamant that it depends on the skills, as Bud will have faced big punchers in sparring. Sparring is different to a real fight, but Jones was still clear that it would all come down to who had the better skill. 

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“I pay no attention to the weight issue. What I pay attention to is the skill level both guys show. What I’m seeing is a hungry Crawford, a Crawford that has been looking for an opportunity for a long time. It’ll all be predicated on whether Terence can take a punch. When you know how to box and you’re as skillful as Crawford is, weight doesn’t matter that much. The only thing that matters with the weight is if he can take the punch. I’m sure he’s been sparring with super middleweights and light heavyweights. I’m sure he can take a punch,” Jones said 

Mosley did not see it that way. Shane made it clear that Crawford’s failure to have other fights at 160 or 168 before facing Canelo may come back to haunt him. However, Crawford may well have wanted to avoid a loss at 160 or 168, which would have all but ended his hopes of securing the Canelo bout. 

“168, you need some time to be there. If you haven’t fought one or two times there where we can kind of see and measure, I don’t know. Jermell Charlo was telling Crawford, ‘When you move to 168, you’re going to slow down. You’re not going to be fast. You’re going to be slow. You’re not going to be able to move as much. It’s going to feel different. You’re going to get tired quicker because you have extra weight. So, you have to deal with that. Being that it’s the first time you’re going up to that weight class, it could be a problem,” Moseley said