Terence Crawford has denied rumours that he is carrying an injury into the biggest fight of his career against Canelo Alvarez.
The American will be challenging for the undisputed super middleweight titles in Las Vegas on Saturday night, and at the grand arrivals, he responded to social media speculation that he has an injury after a picture emerged that fans claimed seemed to show Crawford with a swollen shoulder.
Crawford said: “Where do I have a shoulder injury? I don’t know, I think people are coming up with their own antics.
“Terence Crawford has a shoulder injury, is out of shape, slow – they are coming up with all kinds of stuff.”
Crawford will be moving up two weight divisions from his last fight at super welterweight, where he became WBA champion against Israil Madrimov, and three divisions from where he last held his own undisputed titles at welterweight.
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The American has 31 knockouts in 41 wins, and, shoulder injury or not, is confident that his power will come with him all the way to 168lbs.
‘Bud’ explained: “Of course, the power is definitely going to come with it. That’s not a worry I ever had.”
Despite his assurance that he will bring power into the fight, he did not seem as confident in his ability to stop Canelo, who has never touched the canvas in his career.
He said: “I don’t know about stopping him, but I’m strong. I’ve never been in the ring with Canelo. So I can’t speak about him. But that’s why we fight, so we can figure it out.”
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If Crawford, ranked as the third best pound-for-pound fighter in the world by The Ring, can beat Canelo who is ranked eighth, then he will become world champion in a fifth weight class, and join an exclusive club containing some of the greatest fighters in history: Thomas Hearns, Sugar Ray Leonard, Oscar De La Hoya, Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.
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