A bulked-up Terence Crawford showed off his form, shadowboxing in the mountains of Colorado today in a video clip of him training for his September 13th fight against Canelo Alvarez at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Crawford’s Weight Gain Strategy

Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) has put on a lot of weight in what some fans believe is an attempt to slug it out with the undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) in their headliner on Netflix. However, Bud, 37, is likely to use a lot of movement against the Mexican star like he did in his last fight against Israil Madrimov. The extra weight is so Crawford can take Alvarez’s power.

Crawford’s Performance Against Madrimov

“Madrimov did give Crawford problems. I favor Canelo, not by a lot, but I do favor him. I just think the [William] Scull fight was a bad style,” said Gabe Rosado to Fight Hub TV. “I think Canelo thought, ‘Why force the issue. This guy is running, and I’m not going to take a chance.’ So, I think it was that kind of a fight for Canelo.”

WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov gave Crawford massive problems in their fight a year ago on August 3rd. The power and skills of Madrimov gave Terence a lot of issues in that fight, and the victory that he was given was more based on his popularity than an actual win. That should have been a draw or a victory for Madrimov because he landed the cleaner, harder shots the entire fight, and Crawford looked old.

Crawford vs. Madrimov Revisited

“Again, Madrimov did give Crawford issues. I thought, ‘Damn, at 154, he gave you problems. At 168, it’s different,'” said Rosado.

Crawford is going up two divisions after that lackluster performance without a tune-up, and fresh off a 13-month layoff, it seems dumb. Turki Alalshikh should have insisted that Crawford beat a top contender in the super middleweight division before giving him the Canelo fight. He made it too easy for him.