A NEW LEGEND
You get the idea. Even for a champion, moving up a weight class can be a humbling and painful experience. For every Henry Armstrong, there is a Sugar Ray Robinson; for every Manny Pacquiao, a Jose Napoles. There’s a reason they put fighters on the scale. All else being equal, or at least close to it, the bigger fighter is almost always going to win. The old saying about “a good big man beating a good little man” may be a cliche, but like all cliches, it contains more than a nugget of truth. And like all cliches, the reverse can also be true. Every so often, there is the exception that proves the rule. That is what makes the upcoming undisputed super middleweight championship bout between Terence “Bud” Crawford, unbeaten in 41 fights and the reigning WBA 154-pound titleholder, and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who holds all of the 168-pound belts, even more intriguing than your average long-awaited matchup between two of the world’s top pound- for-pound fighters. And even more
June 25, 1952, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York City:
Sugar Ray Leonard (above, battling Marvelous Marvin Hagler and, at right, with Crawford in 2018) knows all about shutting down the naysayers .
title to his unprecedented simultaneous triple crown.
so when you consider that, despite Crawford’s current titleholder status, many observers still think of him as a welterweight, where he made seven defenses of his WBO title and reached undisputed status in the last. Some version of what Crawford is trying to do has been done successfully by Armstrong, Leonard, Pacquiao and Michael Spinks, to name a few. And it has resulted in disaster for the likes of Robinson, almost everyone’s choice as the greatest all-around fighter in history. The same for Napoles, Bob Foster and De La Hoya, who tried his luck as a middleweight against Bernard Hopkins, only to be flattened by a body shot. “It’s not that easy to move up to a higher weight division,” said Pacquiao, who conquered eight divisions. “In my experience, you need a minimum of three months to prepare for it.” “Elite is elite,” said Roy Jones Jr., the only fighter in history to have fought as light as junior middleweight and eventually win a heavyweight title. “If you’re an elite fighter, you can fight in
any weight class.” “I don’t rule out a Crawford win,” said Jim Lampley, the Hall of Fame broadcaster who called Pacquiao’s shocking win over De La Hoya. “I wouldn’t favor him, but if Sugar Ray Leonard can get a decision over Marvin Hagler, there’s no logical reason that says Crawford can’t do the same with Canelo.” “I think he’s going to get annihilated,” said Sean Gibbons, a longtime boxing matchmaker and manager currently guiding the twilight of Pacquiao’s career. “The first time he gets hit by Canelo, forget about it. He’s getting drilled. Absolutely.” The betting line on the fight tends to support the “good big man” theory. Canelo opened as a 9-5 favorite, generally based on the perceived size difference. In reality, however, the size difference is not what the scale would make it appear. At a listed 5-foot-8, Crawford is in fact half an inch taller than Canelo. His reach – 74 inches – is unusually long
Sugar Ray Robinson, the reigning middleweight king moving up to challenge Joey Maxim, the world light heavyweight champ, is leading widely on the scorecards after 12 rounds. But three minutes later, his once- magnificent 157½-pound body – now drained and listless – collapses in the 104-degree heat and he is unable to continue, suffering the only stoppage loss in his 199-bout career. Henry Armstrong, the world featherweight champion, jumps up two full weight classes to challenge Barney Ross for the welterweight title. Despite giving up nine pounds to his opponent, Homicide Hank manhandles Ross to win the title on a lopsided 15-round decision. Three months later, Armstrong – who weighed 133½ against Ross – will challenge and beat Lou Ambers to add the lightweight May 31, 1938, Madison Square Garden Bowl, Long Island City, New York:
February 9, 1974, Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seines, France:
Jose “Mantequilla” Napoles, having dominated the welterweight division for the previous five years, moves up to challenge Carlos Monzon, the formidable middleweight champion from Argentina. The weight difference is not huge – six pounds – but Monzon’s advantages in height, reach and punching power are insurmountable for Napoles, who can’t make it off his stool for Round 7. April 6, 1987, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas: Sugar Ray Leonard, the former welterweight and junior middleweight champion who has not fought in nearly three years, comes out of retirement to challenge Marvelous Marvin Hagler, who has not lost a fight in 11 years and has defended his middleweight crown 12 times. In a masterful performance, Leonard outthinks, outmaneuvers and
outboxes Hagler to win the title on a decision that is still hotly debated nearly four decades later. December 6, 2008, MGM Grand Garden, Las Vegas: Manny Pacquiao, who began fighting 13 years earlier at 106 pounds but fought his way to titles in five divisions, from flyweight to lightweight, makes the leap to welterweight against Oscar De La Hoya, himself a former lightweight champion. On paper, it looks like a mismatch – at 5-foot-11, De La Hoya dwarfs the 5-foot-5 Pacquiao, and he enjoys a six-inch reach advantage – but on canvas, it is anything but. In a brutally one-sided fight, the ferocious PacMan gobbles up De La Hoya, who doesn’t win a single round.
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