Terence Crawford will be hoping his power carries up two divisions next month.
Crawford is a four-weight world champion, having claimed world honours from lightweight to super-welterweight, whilst also achieving undisputed honours at 140lbs and 147lbs.
Many fans believe it will be a difficult ask for him against Canelo though, with some of them referencing his performance against WBA super-welterweight champion Israil Madrimov last time out as a reason why he may find it tough at super-middleweight.
While Crawford may have defeated Madrimov to win the WBA super-welterweight title, it was a tightly-contested bout which saw ‘Bud’ pushed all the way, and now recent comments from one of his past sparring partners has added to the concerns of competing at 168lbs.
Brian Norman Jr is the current WBO welterweight champion, claiming a knockout of the year contender last time out when he wiped out Jin Sasaki to retain his title.
Norman discussed sparring Crawford in an interview with Showbizz the Adult, but revealed that WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis hits even harder.
“When I sparred Terence Crawford I was 20 years old at the time, so it was like he was trying to man me like ‘I’m gonna show you you a little boy’ type stuff. But I’m mature for my age, so that’s why we evened out. Even when you see him fight for real, he don’t necessarily one-shot people, but what he do is he just beat you up and then he kill you. But as far as one shot, who got it? I got to give that to Tank.”
Crawford will be hoping to prove Norman wrong when he faces Canelo in September, with Norman himself preparing for a big fight as he defends his title against Devin Haney in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in November.
As for Davis, he was expected to have a rematch with Lamont Roach this summer, but any hope of seeing that bout anytime soon appear to now be all but dead.