A fight between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez was set to be one of the biggest of this generation, however now seems unlikely to materialise.
Talks between Canelo and Turki Alalshikh, who was looking to stage the clash on a Riyadh season card, reached an abrupt and seemingly bitter conclusion following Crawford’s win over Israil Madrimov earlier this month.
It remains unclear who ‘Bud’, now WBA light middleweight world champion following his victory in Los Angeles, will take on next if a blockbuster against Alvarez is unsalvageable.
The Mexican has said in numerous interviews that he is not particularly interested in the bout, as he feels he would not get credit for beating an undersized opponent.
However, in a recent interview on The Porter Way Podcast, Crawford rubbished the 34-year-old’s reasoning, citing three examples of him taking on opponents from lower weight divisions.
“To be honest that [Canelo] was my motivation fight.
“It’s crazy and it makes me laugh with all the antics that Canelo is doing and saying in the media and whatnot about the size and he’s going to get no credit and all that, but Canelo been fighting smaller guys his whole career.
“Canelo been making his own catchweight for years.
“Canelo fought a smaller Mayweather, Canelo fought a smaller Amir Khan, he fought Jermell Charlo.
“And I’m pretty sure he didn’t make as much money with all those guys except Mayweather, even [Edgar] Berlanga right now, than he will with me.
“Yet still he has all these excuses why he doesn’t want to take a fight with me.”
Just wrapped up an important meeting now with my team, planning for the upcoming fights that we will make for 2024-2025. I decided to disregard the Canelo fight, as I don’t want it anymore.
Instead, I will be focusing for the US market with bigger fights, especially for the…— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) August 6, 2024
Canelo defends his three super middleweight world titles against Edgar Berlanga on September 14th in Las Vegas, a fight that virtually all pundits are picking the four-weight world champion to emerge victorious from.
There are ever growing frustrations from fans at the Guadalajara favourite’s reluctance to take on some of the top contenders at 168lbs, namely undefeated former titlist David Benavidez.
