Bruce Carrington favors Terence Crawford to upset Canelo Alvarez: 'He has that dog mentality'
While the matchup was long considered a mismatch due to the two-division gap between the pair, as fight night is edging closer, more and more voices in the industry have come out in support of Crawford. Surprisingly, the size gap appeared negligible at their first faceoff, with Bud a +140 underdog at BetMGM.
"I think Terence beats Canelo," featherweight contender Bruce "Shu Shu" Carrington predicted during an in-studio appearance on Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show."
"The size, that never bothers me because Canelo, on fight night, he just seems like he's so much bigger than the [opponent] because of stature. It's not height, it's his back. His back is very wide and cobra-like. When it comes to Canelo, it's just his natural physicality that is very imposing. For me, that size is always going to be a problem."
Crawford won undisputed titles at super lightweight and welterweight, but when he moved up to super welterweight this past August, he had perhaps the hardest fight of his Hall of Fame career against then-WBA champion Israil Madrimov.
"[I think] the [Crawford vs. Madrimov] fight was as competitive as it was because of the style," said Carrington, who will fight Mateus Heita in New York on Saturday for the interim belt in the final Top Rank Boxing card on ESPN. "But Bud said in an interview that it was the power that was kind of the issue that made him hesitant on certain things. If the power is an issue, Canelo is stronger than Madrimov. So what are you going to do with that?
"I do feel like overall, Crawford is the better, [more] well-rounded fighter. He has the better footwork, he has the speed, he is a switch hitter, he's more versatile. He has what it takes to win, and I do feel like the mentality as well. He has that dog mentality. If Canelo hits him, he's going to want to get it back, but still be smart about it. I think that's one of the main things that makes me feel that Crawford is going to be able to take the victory."
Alvarez vs. Crawford is the next major boxing event U.S. fans can look forward to after this past weekend's spectacle, which saw 46-year-old Manny Pacquiao controversially fall short in his bid to become the second-oldest boxing champion of all time. Pacquiao fought to a draw with WBC welterweight champion Mario Barrios in Las Vegas, with many believing the Filipino legend had done enough to leave with his hand raised.
"Manny looked great," Carrington remarked. "I was kind of worried about him at first because obviously, his age and then his last outing — he didn't really look his best. He didn't really look that good [against Japanese kickboxer Rukiya Anpo in a 2024 exhibition bout], but what I was told was that he didn't train that much for that specific fight.
"The way he trained for this fight — I have some friends that went out there in the Philippines with him, and they were right alongside with him training. They were like, 'Manny looks really good. His legs look strong, he trained like he's turning back the clock.' Me watching him fight, it was like me being a teenager again watching Pacquiao fight and just being in awe."
Both Barrios and Pacquiao said they were open to a rematch — and with the controversy stemming from their first encounter, a lucrative second meeting seems inevitable. The event received significant criticism from boxing fans beforehand due to Pacquiao's inactivity and age, but Pacquiao defied expectations.
A man who has earned comparisons to "PacMan" is undisputed super bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue. Inoue has held world titles in four weight classes and was even mentioned as a possibility to jump up to lightweight eventually for a Gervonta "Tank" Davis bout — much like how Pacquiao jumped up three weight classes from super featherweight to welterweight in 2008.
After becoming undisputed champion at 122 pounds in December 2023 with a win over Marlon Tapales, a move to featherweight felt inevitable for the Japanese monster, but Inoue seems to be in no rush to make that jump, much to the disappointment of Carrington, who shares a promoter with Inoue and was hoping to stand across the ring from him.
"I don't think he wants to [move up to featherweight]," Carrington said of Inoue, Uncrowned's No. 2 pound-for-pound boxer. "[I've been banging the drum to fight Inoue] since like 2023 at this point. Back when he wasn't getting knocked down, when no one was calling him out, I was there calling him out. I don't think he wants to fight at 126 right now, especially after his last fight. I was there at his last fight [against Ramon Cardenas]. He got dropped obviously.
"[I wasn't surprised Inoue was dropped because] it's boxing. Anybody can get caught, anybody can get clipped. Especially with his style, sometimes he gets overexcited, and he just runs into shots. That's what happened with Luis Nery as well. He got clipped against Nonito Donaire. He didn't get dropped, but he still got clipped. I think he's hitting a ceiling, or we're starting to see chinks in the armor when it comes to Inoue."
Inoue was in attendance for Carrington's eighth-round TKO over Brayan De Gracia in June 2024. The undisputed champion left the arena after Shu Shu fought, choosing not to stay for the main event, fueling speculation he was at the ESPN-televised New York event for only one purpose — to scout Carrington.
Inoue has made four defenses of his undisputed crown in the past 18 months since unifying the titles and is already planning three more defenses. A move to featherweight seems at least a year away, which is enough for Carrington to believe Inoue isn't really interested in jumping up another division, especially after tasting the canvas twice in 12 months.
With Inoue out of the picture for now, Carrington is instead focused on becoming world champion and facing the best fighters featherweight has to offer — but that is proving to be just as challenging. Carrington says his promoter, Top Rank, made Nick Ball a significant financial offer to defend his WBA title against him, but Ball's team isn't interested in the fight. Ball will instead defend his featherweight crown against super bantamweight contender Sam Goodman next month in Riyadh.
"My team reached out to his team," Carrington said of negotiations for a Ball fight. "At first, they were like, they would need a number like $2 million to even look our way. We didn't have it on the table at the moment, so we put it to rest for some months. We come back later and we're like, 'All right, we have that number that you want.' And then his team just makes another excuse. [I understand Ball's team wanting to be paid fairly for the fight]. [But] now we have that [money], and you're making another excuse? Something not right, bro. [Somebody's] not confident, or you don't believe in yourself, or [your team] doesn't believe in [their] fighter. I don't know what that's about. That lets me know it's more than just the money."
With WBC featherweight champion Stephen Fulton expected to step up to 130 pounds for his next fight and challenge WBC title holder O'Shaquie Foster, Carrington is biding his time.
"At this point right now, I'm at a certain level where I don't want to fight certain people anymore," Carrington explained. "I want to fight champions now. I'm very hungry. I'm very ambitious about it. I see myself being the first undisputed featherweight world champion in the four-belt era."
If Fulton doesn't return to featherweight, Carrington is expecting to fight the winner of the Rey Vargas-Carlos Castro bout for the full WBC featherweight crown. But for now, Carrington is forced to play a waiting game — until the big fights finally align for the rising Brooklyn star.
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