Terence Crawford insists he’s “ready now” to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight championship after finishing his title defense against Jermell Charlo on September 30th. However, there’s not much in it for Canelo to fight Crawford. If he beats Crawford, fans will say, ‘So what? He was supposed to.’
The only way it would make sense for Canelo to fight Crawford is if the Nebraska native moved up to 168 and ran the gauntlet through these killers to prove himself worthy:
- David Benavidez
- Dmitry Bivol
- David Morrell Jr.
- Artur Beterbiev
If Crawford can beat ALL those guys, Canelo wouldn’t take flak from boxing fans for fighting him, and it would be worth it for him. Unfortunately, Crawford will never attempt to fight any of those guys because he’d lose and possibly get knocked out by all of them.
For Canelo, this is a lose-lose situation if he were to fight Crawford because he gains nothing but money from fighting him. If Canelo wins, he won’t receive credit from the boxing world because Crawford has recently been fighting at 147 and has never fought at 168.
If Canelo loses or struggles to defeat Crawford, he will get dumped on by the boxing world and laughed at. There’s nothing heroic bout Canelo fighting a welterweight with zero experience at super middleweight.
The only way Canelo will receive credit from fans is if he fights the likes of Benavidez, Beterbiev, Bivol, or Morrell Jr. Fighting them makes much more sense for Canelo than facing Crawford.
You can’t include Demetrius Andrade anymore because he’s 35 and not the guy he used to be.
Last week, Crawford said he would never fight at 168 and offered Canelo to fight him at a 158-lb catchweight. But now, Crawford has changed his tune after Canelo rejected his catchweight offer, and now he’s ready to come up in weight three divisions to face Alvarez at 168.
Crawford is likely thinking about the big payday he would get fighting Canelo, which would help his retirement by giving him a golden parachute.
If Crawford can pick up another $20 million as he did in his last fight against Errol Spence Jr on July 29th, the dough would go a long way towards making his retirement a nice one, living like a king.
Losing to Canelo wouldn’t hurt Crawford’s legacy because he’d have a handy excuse to give to his Ohama, Nebraska boxing fans, blaming the defeat on him coming up three weight divisions to fight at 168.
Crawford’s legacy wouldn’t be hurt at all from the loss, and if anything, he’ll look heroic for having tried. Terence will cry all the way to the bank after scooping up his $20 million+ paycheck for the Canelo fight.
The 36-year-old Crawford appears to have seen the light or, at the very least, seen the face-off between the short 5’8′ Canelo and Jermell and realized that he’s more than big enough to face the Mexican star.
“I’m ready now. People think it’s all about weight, but I think it’s skill. I’ve got the power to make anybody respect me, I don’t care what your weight is,” said Terence Crawford on the Joe Rogan podcast.
https://youtu.be/nJKGdZD_Euo?t=17