It is difficult to separate Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, but there is one area where the Mexican outranks ‘Bud’.
The undisputed super middleweight champion has had some highlight-reel knockouts and some may favour his power over the heavy punches of Crawford, but a former Canelo opponent revealed his power isn’t all that.
While this may ease any nerves the Omaha boxer has about the power, the 35-year-old still has 39 knockouts in 63 wins.
But the American does carry some key attributes in the departments of power and footwork, as shown in his destructive Errol Spence Jr performance two years ago.
Terence Crawford sixth in jab connection rate list below Canelo Alvarez, as another Mexican star ranks above both
Boxers and fans have highlighted the long jab of the 37-year-old as a perfect weapon against the smaller man, although his connect percentage does let him down.
While still highly ranked in the list, his 22.4% connect rate lets him down compared to his opponent on September 13th by almost 1%.
Alvarez has even thrown seven times fewer jabs per round than his next title challenger, which makes him much more effective across the 12-round distance.
| Fighter | Jab connect percentage |
| Jesse Rodriguez | 27.1% |
| Naoya Inoue | 25.7% |
| Dmitry Bivol | 24.7% |
| Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez | 23.3% |
| Shakur Stevenson | 22.6% |
| Terence Crawford | 22.4% |
| Oleksandr Usyk | 20.6% |
| Artur Beterbiev | 19.9% |
| Gervonta Davis | 17.9% |
| Junto Nakatani | 11.5% |
Jesse ‘Bam’ Rodriguez takes the number one position on this list with a 27.1% connection rate, which is over 10% more than Japanese sensation Junto Nakatani.
He recently took apart Phumelela Cafu, whose corner threw in the towel in the tenth round of their title unification bout.
Oleksandr Usyk (20.6%) is surprisingly lower on this list, even after using his lead hand very effectively in his fifth-round knockout of Daniel ‘Dynamite’ Dubois.
Canelo Alvarez lost to a fellow pound-for-pound star in 2022, who outjabbed him in all 12 rounds
If the former undisputed welterweight champion was going to study any tapes on how to outwork the four-division great, it would be his bout against Dmitry Bivol.
The Guadalajaran was soundly beaten and was outjabbed in every department across every single round.
To demonstrate the defensive skill of the Russian, in four rounds Canelo connected with no jabs, and in the other eight rounds, he never landed more than two on Bivol.
After this bout, the 34-year-old went on to become the undisputed light heavyweight champion when he beat Artur Beterbiev in their acclaimed rematch.
