Morrell Blasts Canelo-Crawford: “Fake Fight, Only For Business”

David Morrell says a potential fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford is a “False” one, just for done “business” purposes.

The Canelo-Crawford fight still hasn’t been made, but His Excellency Turki Alalshikh mentioned in an interview that Crawford is out with an injury until May 2025. Of course, that’s when Canelo will fight next. Turki will try to put that fight together.

Morrell doesn’t like the idea of ​​Canelo defending against another 154-pounder. He fought four unified junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo at 168 on September 30, 2023, and it was not a competitive match. Jermell is bigger and stronger than Crawford. He was too weak for Canelo and looked scared.

Alalshikh was asked why he didn’t try to set up a fight between Crawford and WBC interim 154-lb champion Vergil Ortiz Jr on the February 22 colossal card in Riyadh, and he said Terence was out with ‘ a small injury.

Crawford would never fight Vergil because it’s risky, and he’s looking for the jackpot with a golden parachute retirement payday against Canelo. Turki previously mentioned that he didn’t think Crawford would agree to fight Ortiz Jr., so it was clear that he wasn’t going to be an option for the February 22nd card.

WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight champion Morrell says he doesn’t like Canelo defending his three unified super middleweight belts against Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who would move up from 154.

“Bulls***!” – Morrell on Canelo

Morrell feels that Canelo should defend his titles against the contenders at 168 instead of picking the 37-year-old Crawford for a title defense. He says it’s “Bull s***” if Canelo does that.

He already fought Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia rather than facing David Benavidez when he was in his WBC mandatory. He also showed no interest in Morrell when he was at 168 and held the WBA ‘ordinary’ belt.

“It’s simple. This fight is not good,” Morrell told Fighthype, responding to his thoughts on Crawford possibly fighting Alvarez in May 2025. “Canelo is one weight, and Crawford is another weight. It’s for business. Canelo has a lot of good fighters at 168.

“He (Crawford) is 154. It’s just for business. For me it is not good. Canelo has four good guys at 168 which is a good fight. Before, Benavidez was at 168. Why didn’t they fight? Why fight against Munguia? Canelo previously said, ‘I never fight the Mexican people.’ Why did you fight Munguia? Later you fight Berlanga.

“You have one guy at 168 who is mandatory. So, right now it’s (Canelo-Crawford) just for business. They finish their career. They have two more years, three more years. Any guy for money. You have guys at 168. You don’t need a guy at 154 (Crawford). To me it’s bull s***.

The sanctioning bodies allow this kind of stuff to go on in the sport, and it’s pathetic. Canelo defended his then-undisputed super middleweight title against Jermell, despite Charlo never having fought at 168 before. It looks bad when Canelo passes up the top super middleweight titles to defend against someone at 154.

Morrell vs. Benavidez: The REAL fight

“For me, this is the best fight in 2025. It’s Cuba and Mexico. Those are two young guys,” Morrell said of his Feb. 1 fight against Benavidez. “Everyone says he’s the boogeyman. I say no. It’s really a big fight. Tonight is not bull s***. It’s not fake. Everyone goes to Vegas. I promise you a good show.”

Morrell defends his WBA ‘regular’ light heavyweight title against Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) on February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on PBC Prime Video PPV. The winner of the fight will be in a position to challenge for the 175-lb undisputed championship against the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch winner.

“Benavidez is fake bullying. Before, he talked bad to people, and they didn’t say anything. I’m different,” Morrell said of David Benavidez being a bully unless you stand up to him like he has.

Benavidez hasn’t fought someone who was considered a 50-50 matchup in years, and he could have by now if he had agreed to fight Morrell when he first called him out in 2022. He could have moved up to light heavyweight earlier in his career to test himself instead of waiting until now.

“If you’re nice, I’m nice. But if you’re a bad boy, I’m more of a bad boy than you. Right now it’s 100% personal for me,” Morrell said of Benavidez.

“I looked good for a new division, but I know I can look better,” Morrell said of his debut at 175 against Radivoje Kalajdzic on August 3.

Morrell is coming off a one-sided 12-round unanimous decision over Kalajdzic (29-3, 21 KOs), and he looked good in that fight, hurting him several times.