Jose Benavidez Jr. Predicts Terence Crawford’s “Tom And Jerry” Strategy Against Canelo Alvarez In Vegas

Trainer Jose Benavidez Jr. says he believes Terence Crawford will “move around” all night, try to win a decision in his fight against Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. He notes that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) didn’t look “good” in his last fight, moving up to 154.

Fans won’t be happy, and neither will Turki Alalshikh if Crawford moves around all night. That’s how he’s always fought. The only time he deviated from that was when he fought Errol Spence, and that was because Errol was a physical mess.

Crawford’s Power at 168 Pounds

The fight showed that the 37-year-old Crawford lacks the power to compete above 147 and has aged since his career-best win against Errol Spence Jr. in 2023.

So, Jose Sr. believes Bud Crawford will focus on trying to win a decision against undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) in their headliner at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

“No, I think it’s going to be a Tom and Jerry fight,” said Jose Benavidez Sr. to Fight Hub TV about his belief that Terence Crawford will use a lot of movement against Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. “Crawford has not been looking really good. We saw how he looked in his last fight.”

It’s a near-certainty that Crawford is going to turn it into a “Tom and Jerry fight” because he’s giving away too much size, power, and youth to Canelo. His trainer, Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre, has already said they’re going to use the Dmitry Bivol and Floyd Mayweather Jr. as the blueprint to use on how to defeat Canelo.

A “Jerry-esque” Performance vs. Canelo

“So, Canelo, the reflexes are not there. His power is not there. The knees are not the same. Canelo is going to try to knock him out, but Crawford is going to do what he does best. He’s going to move around, try to win the rounds, touch him, and move,” said Jose Sr.

We saw a lot of movement from Crawford in his fight against Israil Madrimov last year. That was a boring fight. Crawford fell behind early due to the movement he was using and was forced to apply pressure in the later rounds to get back in the fight. I watched it, and he didn’t do enough to deserve the victory, but the judges gave it to him. If Madrimov were the A-side instead of Crawford, he’d have won.

Crawford’s Fight to Win Rounds

“I think if Crawford stays [immobile], I think Canelo can knock him out, because Canelo is a bigger guy. I don’t think Crawford is going to come and give the fans what they want. He don’t care. He’s just going to come and win and beat him. I don’t know if they’re going to give it to him, but it’s just going to be a Tom and Jerry fight,” said Jose Sr.

Benavidez Sr. is right. Crawford won’t care that the fans and Turki Alalshikh are unhappy with him running around the ring all night in the Alvarez fight. He knows that if he gets the victory, a rematch is guaranteed to happen. That would be an even bigger payday than the $50 million he’s getting for the September 13th fight.

Crawford knows his only path to victory is to turn in a Jerry-esque performance, because he’s too weak and slender to brawl with Alvarez. He had no power at 154, and it’ll be worse at 168. You’ve got to feel sorry for Turki because he’s paying Crawford a fortune to take this fight, and he won’t get value for his money spent.