Dinner Before War: Canelo-Crawford Photo Creates Debate On Boxing’s New Era

Turki Alalshikh posted a photo of Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford sitting down, eating in front of a large table of food, which has garnered a strong reaction from fans on social media. It goes against the grain for traditionalists.

Canelo-Crawford are supposed to be going to war on September 13th in their headliner at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. There’s not supposed to be any niceties with sworn enemies breaking bread, smiling, and acting like old friends before a fight.

Canelo-Crawford Photo Ignites Debate

The photo makes the fight look more like a business move, a money grab for two aging fighters who are on their last legs career-wise. Turki posted the picture of Canelo and Crawford on X to create interest from fans.

New Era Marketing

However, this new school approach of hyping their fight is alien to the traditionalists, who expect trash-talking, mean-mugging, and intimidation during the build-up for fights to create interest. Old school fans expect snarling and pure anger between two fighters heading to battle.

There are already many fans who view the Canelo-Crawford fight as a business-driven event rather than a sporting one. Crawford has never fought at 168, and is moving up two weight classes from 154 to 168 to challenge Canelo (63-2-2, 39 KOs) for his undisputed super middleweight championship.

Terence is about to turn 38, has chosen not to get his feet wet by getting acclimated at 168. For Crawford not to take at least one tune-up at 168 first, it makes it clear that he’s just moving up for the money. It’s likely his retirement payday to allow the old wolf to live like a  King in Beverly Hills, Bel Air, or Holmby Hills, California, alongside other mega-millionaires.

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— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) June 19, 2025

“After Canelo’s last performance, he struggled against a guy in cutting off the ring, a longer guy that wasn’t trying to make it a fight,” said Sergio Mora to Fighthype, talking about Canelo Alvarez’s last fight against William Scull on May 3rd.

Is Canelo Losing His Edge?

That performance from Canelo looked terrible against William Scull. Alvarez threw only 152 punches, landing 56 in the entire 12-round fight. You can’t blame that on Scull’s movement either, because he was stationary a lot, but Canelo looked too tired to attack. Age caught up to him in that fight.

“Canelo has lost a step. Let’s be real,” said Mora. “This is a man with over 65 fights. He’s been fighting professionally since he was 15 years old. There’s wear and tear and injuries. He can turn old overnight. And believe it or not, he’s younger than Crawford, but Crawford doesn’t have those miles. Crawford is 37 years old. He can turn old overnight, but I still like Crawford.”

Canelo looked like a classic example of a washed-up fighter against Scull. He couldn’t pull the trigger, looking old and tired. The years caught up to him in that fight. Fighters do get old overnight, especially when they take a lot of heavy shots from a cruiserweight-sized fighter like Edgar Berlanga.

Fans don’t realize how hard Berlanga was hitting Canelo in the championship rounds. He got hit harder than he had since his first two fights against Gennadiy Golovkin.

“He’s a mean dude. He’s been bulking up nicely,” said Mora about Crawford. “He’s been doing it the right way. He looks bigger than Canelo right now, as far as the height and the shoulders. I think it’s going to be a decision-type fight. I think Crawford is in this fight. And I don’t think Canelo leaves unscathed.”

Crawford didn’t look good against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov last August. He was lucky to get the win. If Madrimov didn’t gas out in the championship rounds, Terence would lose that fight. It was close.

“I think he’ll leave a little bruised and beat up, but he’ll still win the decision,” said Mora, predicting a victory for Canelo over Crawford.