Long before a potential clash became a reality, Brian McIntyre was convinced that Terence Crawford possessed the tools to defeat Canelo Alvarez. While the general consensus focused on the significant size disparity, McIntyre remained unfazed.
“I told [him], I said, ‘You could beat that dude, man,’ because he didn’t look that tall,” McIntyre told Brian Custer on his channel. “Bud handle anybody just about the same size as him. Canelo was just wider, and that’s it. But, I mean, his boxing IQ was just up there to where I knew back then he could beat him, and I knew now he can beat him.”
McIntyre’s confidence stemmed from looking past the curated aura of Canelo Alvarez. Although Alvarez has secured championships across four weight classes, his trajectory has often been characterized by strategic matchmaking, where the most perilous risks were frequently avoided.
The evidence of this careful curation is evident in Alvarez’s history. Gennadiy Golovkin pursued a fight for years, only securing it at age 35, resulting in a controversial draw that many felt Golovkin should have won. Similarly, when Canelo moved to light heavyweight in 2019, he opted to face 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev for the WBO title, bypassing the more formidable Artur Beterbiev.
This pattern continued at 168 pounds, where fighters like Jaime Munguia, Edgar Berlanga, and William Scull were granted opportunities while more dangerous, younger contenders were kept off the schedule.
Within this context, Crawford’s success is even more significant. By entering an environment where Alvarez’s team typically controlled the timing and the opponent, Crawford stripped away the protections provided by strategic matchmaking.
McIntyre saw through the mythos years ago. When the opportunity finally arrived, Crawford proved to be the precise puzzle that “BoMac” always believed his pupil could solve.
