Canelo Alvarez remains open to fighting Terence Crawford next if the money is right and if he prevails in the September 14th title defense of his super middleweight belts against Edgar Berlanga.
Alvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t mind the WBO ordering 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 did not look strong in his recent debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov, and he is not the same fighter at this weight class as he was at 147 and under.
Fundora’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, doubts Crawford will fight his fighter. He thinks he will hold out for the money fight against Canelo rather than take the risky matchup against ‘The Towering Inferno’ Fundora because he knows the outcome.
Crawford’s performance against WBA junior middleweight champion Isrial Madrimov on August 3 showed that he is not built for 154 and will be food for Fundora, Tim Tszyu, Erickson Luibin, Charles Conwell and Vergil Ortiz Jr.
The are just a few fighters that will be a pure 100% nightmare for the soon-to-be 37-year-old Crawford. Against a phenom like Canelo, Crawford would stand no chance of winning. Even if he tries to emulate the Floyd Mayweather Jr. blueprint by punching and running all night, it won’t work against Canelo.
Crawford is too fragile and thin-legged to fight at 168 against robust 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 ability affected him in that fight. Crawford going 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,” Canelo told Boxingscene about a fight against Nebraska native Crawford.
Crawford would be a good fight for Canelo to stay active between serious title defenses against talents like Mbilli, Pacheco and Iglesias. The money will be good for Canelo, and his popularity will increase after making easy work of Crawford, a smaller, older, weaker version of Jermell Charlo.
We saw what happened to Jermell when he moved up from 154 to 168 to challenge in September 2023. Jermell was too weak and too small to compete with Canelo.
