A bitter Terence Crawford expressed his frustration at losing to the big fish, Canelo Alvarez, today.
Crawford feels that joint super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) does not want to fight him because he is worried about his legacy if he loses. He would look bad in front of his fans getting beaten by a great guy who started his career at 135.
Canelo’s Financial Needs
Honorable Turki Alalshikh has decided that he does not want to continue trying to fight between Canelo and Crawford because the Mexican star wants a lot of money. $150 million is around what Canelo wanted for that fight.
From Canelo’s point of view, when you hear Tyson Fury got $100 million+ to fight Oleksandr Usyk in their first fight last May and possibly more for the December 21st rematch, the $150 million Canelo is asking for is ridiculous.
Turki Alalshikh’s right is not to pay Canelo the amount he is asking for the Crawford fight, but you can understand why he is asking that number. Canelo-Crawford is a much bigger fight in the US than Fury-Usyk. But if Turki wants the Canelo vs. Crawford, you will pay him.
Impact of Crawford’s Recent Performance
We don’t know if Turki has put down his plans for a fight between them because of Crawford’s dissatisfaction defeating the WBA junior middleweight champion Israel Madrimov last Saturday night in Los Angeles. Crawford didn’t finish the fight against a fighter who doesn’t have the power, offense, or talent of Canelo.
Crawford’s reaction time to hitting looked slow. He took a lot of big shots, and his strength was not up to 154 pounds. His shot was at a low level for a 147-pounder. So, if Crawford can’t bowl at the 154-pound level, he’ll be in trouble at 168.
Crawford being overtaken by Canelo would not have stopped Turki from fighting because the match would have been left. However, if Canelo blows Crawford out of the water, the fans will be upset and feel left out.
Who will they blame? The guy who organized the war, Turki. He knows now that Crawford has no chance against Canelo. Therefore, it makes sense for him to back off from trying to make that fight.
“That was my motivation,” Terence Crawford told YouTube channel Sean Zittel about Canelo Alvarez’s motivation to continue his career after his win over Israel Madrimov last Saturday night.
Crawford stated that his motivation was to get the Canelo fight after his match with Madrimov, and now that is not happening, and he is not happy.
“It’s crazy and it makes me laugh about what Canelo said to the media that he’s not going to get the glory,” but Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his whole career like Crawford.
Canelo With Little To Gain
It’s not clear whether Crawford pretends he doesn’t understand Canelo’s motives for not fighting him. If so, Canelo won’t get credit for the win and will be scorned by the entire promotion.
When Crawford competes less, he comes across as a hero, while Canelo is a downer. You heard Crawford saying he wants to fight Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson at lightweight because he knows the boxing community would laugh at him if he tried to fight those guys. They are very small.
It’s not true that Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his entire career. Here are examples of Canelo fighting great fighters:
– Dmitry Bivol
– Sergey Kovalev
– Jaime Munguia
– James Kirkland
“Canelo has been making his own catchweight for years. He fought little Mayweather,” said Crawford. “Canelo fought the younger Amir Khan and Jermell Charlo. I’m sure he didn’t make as much money as all those guys except Mayweather. Even Berlanga right now, as he was going to oppose me, but he has all these reasons why he doesn’t want to fight me.”
Crawford was bigger than most opponents when he fought at 135 and 140. He was always better than his opponents in those two weight classes, and he used his size. Crawford is an A-1 hypocrite in that Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his entire career while doing the same thing.
“When it comes to business, you do good business. I heard him say that I work easily. If I am easy, he will take all that money that he is [Turki Alalshikh] he gives it to you, but he wants $200 million to fight Benavidez and $150 million to fight me,” said Crawford.
If His Excellency doesn’t give Canelo the $150 million he allegedly asked for, you can’t blame him for choosing not to fight Crawford. That’s what he felt fighting was worth. If Turki doesn’t want to pay it, that’s on him. Instead of Crawford getting mad at Canelo, he needs to ask Turki why he doesn’t want to put in the fight dough.
“So that makes me know that I am a threat to him. I’m a threat to him, and I’m a threat to his legacy because it would be crazy for a boy. [Crawford] which started at 135 to reach your weight [168]. Your weight, not the catchweight, there’s no way around that and it’s going to take you out of the seat,” Crawford said.
Canelo does not consider Crawford a threat in his own right because he is too fragile and not built to be strong enough to fight a fighter with strong bones like him. For Crawford to have a chance against Canelo, he will need the size and strength of Gennadiy Golovkin. He doesn’t have that. He is frail and not young, turning 37 in September.
“So, he has that in the back of his head. ‘This boy [Crawford talking in the third person], for one, he is difficult. Of the two, he is a boxer. He moves, he can punch, he can do everything. I can’t slip and lose to this guy. So what will my fans say about me? What will my Mexican fans think of me?’” Crawford said of Canelo.
It’s a no-win situation for Canelo to fight an aging 154-pounder like Crawford, coming off a fight that many fans saw him lose to Madrimov. Those are probably Canelo’s worries. It’s a no-win situation for Canelo, as it would be if Crawford decided to fight super bantamweight Naoya Inoue.
“Therefore, it is a big risk for him, as he said. He gets nothing out of it. None of these guys who were the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world fought when they moved up in weight. None of these guys,” Crawford said.
Being a pound-for-pound champion has nothing to do with money. If Crawford wants to call himself a pound-for-pound fighter, that’s fine, but he’s unmarketable and not a huge PPV attraction.
People who only follow pound for pound measurements ultra-hardcore fans. Casual fans don’t look at those ratings to decide whether to buy a fight on PPV.
“He wasn’t getting the amount of money that was being thrown at him guaranteed by those guys who fought me,” said Crawford about Canelo’s previous fights. “So, it shows a level of respect. I consider it a respect he gave me. I don’t consider it disrespectful.”
This shows that Canelo has an asking price, and apparently, His Majesty is not willing to pay him the kind of money he wants. With his estimated net worth of $250 million, Canelo has so much money now that he can ask for a certain fight price. If he doesn’t get it, it’s not a problem because he has plenty of other fights to face and continue to make good money.
Canelo’s opinion of Crawford
“I consider it the level of respect he thinks of me as a fighter. Right now I’m still doing what I’m doing,” said Crawford when asked if he might retire and leave the game now rather than stay.
It’s possible that Canelo sees Crawford as an older, younger fighter with a boring Mayweather-esque, demanding fighting style. golden parachute payday to help his retirement age. Alvarez said he sees Madrimov as the real winner of their fight.
He thinks Crawford should have lost the Madrimov fight, and so do a lot of boxing fans. It doesn’t help Canelo that he fought Crawford and he came out victorious and caused a stir.
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