Benavidez Sr. Criticizes Crawford’s ‘Safe’ Style

Trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. says Terence Crawford is not an “exciting fighter” and reminds him of Shakur Stevenson with his approach to fighting. He feels that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) just focuses on winning rounds and doesn’t go out of his way to entertain the fans like his son, David Benavidez, does.

Crawford has always been a boxer-puncher who focused on movement and counter-punching. His style held him back from gaining a large fan base until late in his career when he fought Errol Spence last year.

Crawford’s Focus Canelo at 168

Jose Sr. says his Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) would knockout Crawford in “three or four” rounds if Bud moved up to 168 to face him. Crawford wants to move up to 168, but just for an immediate title shot against unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in what he says would be a “legacy” fight.

Crawford would stand no chance against David Benavidez, David Morrell, Osleys Iglesias, or Christian Mbilli at 168. He’s not young, strong, or big enough to compete with them. Crawford wants the Canelo to fight at 168 and nobody else.

Terence has no interest in creating a legacy fighting anyone but Canelo at 168, and he doesn’t feel he needs to earn the title shot, given what he’s done at 135, 140, 147, and 154 during his 16-year-old professional career.

Jose Sr.’s view on Crawford being a dull fighter might have to do with his recent debut at 154 against WBA champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. Crawford mostly boxed Madrimov in a chess match and didn’t take chances to entertain the fans.

“I’m not even going to compare David to Terence Crawford. David is an exciting fighter. David comes to throw punches and risk a lot. He comes to put on a performance,” said trainer Jose Benavidez Sr. on the Thaboxingvoice YouTube channel, comparing David Benavidez to Terence Crawford.

Benavidez is a much different fighter than Crawford, focusing more on scoring knockouts with his combination punching. Crawford has a lot of knockouts, but those were mostly against lesser fighters who were small, old, and not high-caliber. We saw when Crawford got in with Madrimov he couldn’t do anything with him and just boxed to a boring 12-round decision.

“Terence Crawford is a really good fighter. He always plays it safe and wants to win the rounds, but I don’t think he risks. He doesn’t give the people excitement, and he’s going to come and have a good fight,” said Jose Sr.

Crawford wasn’t taking chances against Madrimov. When he fought at 147, he was more aggressive, but that was due to the level of his opposition. Crawford fought guys like Errol Spence, Shawn Porter, David Avanesyan, Jeff Horn, Kell Brook, and Amir Khan. He moved up to 154 without fighting Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis.

The Shakur Stevenson Comparison

“To me, Terence Crawford is like a Shakur Stevenson,” said Jose Sr. “Pound-for-pound, Terence Crawford is a good fighter, but to me, he’s not exciting. He always plays it safe. He wins the rounds, and that’s it. I can’t even compare him to David. David is an exciting fighter and one that people want to see. The last performance [against Oleksandr Gvozdyk], he came in injured, but I’m proud of what he did.”

Shakur seems to have learned his trade from watching Crawford fight and has patterned his style after his. He takes it a step further with his defensive style, but it is very similar to Crawford’s. It’s one of the reasons why Shakur hasn’t become popular—fans don’t like boxers.

“Three or four. Maybe it’s like a Boo Boo [Andrade] thing,” said Benavidez Sr. when asked how long Crawford would last against David Benavidez.