Canelo Alvarez remains open to fighting Terence Crawford next if the money is right and if he’s victorious in the September 14th title defense of his super middleweight belts against Edgar Berlanga.
Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t care that the WBO ordered Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to challenge WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora next. It will happen if he wants the fight with Crawford, provided His Excellency Turki Alalshikh offers him enough money to accept it.
Canelo’s Openness
Canelo feels that Crawford is an “easy” fight for him, and he’s right. Crawford didn’t look strong in his recent debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov, and he’s not the same fighter in this weight class as he was at 147 and below.
Fundora’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, doubts whether Crawford will fight with his fighter. He thinks he will hold out for the money fight against Canelo rather than take the risky match against ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora because he knows the result.
Crawford’s performance against WBA junior middleweight champion Isrial Madrimov on August 3rd showed that he’s not built for 154 and would be food for Fundora, Tim Tszyu, Erickson Luibin, Charles Conwell, and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
Those are just some fighters that would be a pure 100% nightmare for the soon-to-be 37-year-old Crawford. Against a phenom like Canelo, Crawford would stand no chance whatsoever of winning. Even if he tries to mimic the Floyd Mayweather Jr. blueprint by jabbing and running all night, it won’t work against Canelo.
Crawford is too fragile and thin-boned to fight at 168 against rugged killers like Canelo, David Benavidez, David Morrell, Christian Mbilli, Diego Pacheco, or Osleys Iglesias. As Canelo recently said, “There are weight classes for a reason.”
A Mismatch at 168
Crawford’s combination of age, inactivity, and moving up to a weight class beyond his capacity affected him in that fight. Crawford going up to 168 to challenge Canelo would be a complete mismatch in favor of the Mexican star.
“I’m not saying that fight can’t happen. That order doesn’t matter,” said Canelo to Boxingscene about a fight against the Nebraska native Crawford.
Crawford would be a good stay-busy fight for Canelo to keep active in between serious title defenses against talents like Mbilli, Pacheco, and Iglesias. The money would be good for Canelo, and his popularity would increase after he made easy work of Crawford, a smaller, older, weaker version of Jermell Charlo.
We saw what happened with Jermell when he moved up from 154 to 168 to challenge in September of 2023. Jermell was too weak and small to compete with Canelo.
