Here's why Canelo vs. Crawford just took a body blow

LOS ANGELES -- The secret to solving Terence Crawford, said Joel Diaz, who trains now-former WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov, was the body.

"Nobody ever tests him to the body," Diaz told ESPN the other night. "But we're going there every chance we get. Crawford throws that southpaw jab, we're throwing a right to the body. He throws it orthodox, Israil's going down there with a straight right."

And as it began, Madrimov -- of Indio, California, by way of Uzbekistan -- was faithful to the trainer's counsel. But fighters as good as Madrimov and Crawford -- still one of the best in the world despite the toughest and closest night of his still undefeated career -- discern other openings as the fight evolves. So after a couple of rounds poking Crawford's body, Madrimov began to launch straight right hands -- and unlike pretty much any of Crawford's previous 40 opponents -- saw them land with great regularity. After that, Madrimov found a home for a long left hook that came around Crawford's guard. By the seventh round, you could notice swelling around Crawford's right eye.

None of this would be remarkable if it weren't Crawford -- a four-division champion now, undisputed at 140 and 147 pounds -- whose last outing ended the idea of Errol Spence Jr. as we knew him. Since 2016, Crawford knocked out everyone he's faced. You've seen Crawford's mean streak. You've seen his aptitude, justifiably regarded as the highest IQ in the game. But you've never really seen him vulnerable. Perhaps more remarkable, though, he began as an upstart in Omaha, Nebraska -- then regarded as the North Pole of the boxing world -- without an "A-side" rep or the blessing of a big promoter. I asked Crawford leading up to the fight who was the best fighter of the post-Floyd Mayweather age.

"Me," he said. "And I've been showing it for years. We always had the motto, keep winning and everything will fall in place."

True. No one's ever done Crawford any favors -- until, perhaps, Saturday night.

"I believe I did enough," Madrimov said moments after the judges delivered their unanimous verdict against him.

He wasn't alone, of course. His promoter, Eddie Hearn, argued that judge Fernando Villarreal's 116-112 card in favor of Crawford seemed as if it had been "filled out before the fight began." In fact, this wasn't a robbery. I had it six rounds a piece, but in a fight like this there's always at least a couple that could go either way. What's more, in his maiden voyage at 154 pounds, Crawford won the final two rounds on all three judges' scorecards, and did it, in large measure, by banging Madrimov to the body. If he was the smaller fighter, he was also the stronger one inside.

"I ain't gonna lie," said Crawford. "He's strong ... he got me to Round 12. ...This guy is big."

Though not as big as the fighter touted -- or, perhaps, merely hoped for -- as Crawford's next opponent. That would be the undisputed super middleweight champion, Canelo Alvarez. While both Crawford and Canelo are nearing the end of illustrious careers and speak fondly of their legacies, Crawford took a real risk on Saturday, moving up in weight to fight a high-risk opponent who is decidedly not a household name. Yes, his decision was subsidized by the largesse of boxing's would-be savior, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority. Still, whatever your scorecard, it was the kind of fight often spoken of, but rarely seen: the best fighting the best.

Canelo, on the other hand, will fight Edgar Berlanga next month, who has yet to win a fight that merits either Canelo or the corresponding payday. I like Edgar. But his main talent for earning the date is not being David Benavidez, whom Canelo has avoided for years.

Perhaps that's the real loss here. Turki Alalshikh wanted Canelo-Crawford. It seemed like an inspired idea -- until Saturday night. An ambiguous victory over Madrimov potentiality takes the steam out of the Canelo-Crawford.

Rather, what's left seems to be a battle for boxing supremacy between Canelo and Alalshikh, who is promoting a UFC 306 at the Sphere in Las Vegas the same night as Canelo-Berlanga a couple of miles away at T-Mobile Arena.

"We will eat him," Alalshikh told ESPN's Mike Coppinger, last month.

Last night, however, Alalshikh struck a different note. "I give him the offer," he said of Canelo. "If he's smart, he will accept it."

If not, figure on Crawford vs. Vergil Ortiz Jr.

Either way, Canelo-Crawford just took a body blow.