Undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez’s three potential opponents for next May are Terence Crawford, Jermall Charlo, and Jaime Munguia.
According to ESPN Knockout, Crawford, Jermall Charlo, and Jaime Munguia are the three fighters being considered by Canelo for his next fight in May on Cinco de Mayo.
WBC interim 168-lb champion David Benavidez is one of Canelo’s options for September as long as he doesn’t lose in the meantime. Benavidez should fight someone good for a change if he wants to put himself in a good spot to get the fight with Canelo in September.
Crawford an excellent option for Canelo in May
Easily the worst choice of the three would be Munguia (42-0, 33 KOs), a guy who has no substantive wins on his decade-long resume and a fighter who has been involved in razor-close fights against Sergiy Derevyanchenko and Dennis Hogans.
Munguia has cruised through his entire career, fighting journeymen & fringe-level fighters without taking any risks, which is why he’s still unknown instead of having a resume filled with losses.
If Munguia proved himself first by defeating Benavidez, Jermall Charlo, or David Morrell, American fans would tolerate seeing him fight Canelo in May, but he’s not going to fight any of those guys because this management obviously knows what would happen if he tangled with any of them.
Munguia is fighting former Canelo opponent, 35-year-old John Ryder, on January 27th. If he wins that fight, he’ll be available to fight Canelo in May.
PBC won’t get their money’s worth using Munguia for Canelo’s second fight of his three-fight deal because that’s not a fight that will get U.S. fans excited about paying $75 to watch that mismatch on PPV.
Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) would be moving up from welterweight to challenge Canelo for his four 168-lb belts, and it would be interesting for fans to see if the Mexican star can defeat the seemingly unbeatable former two-time undisputed champion.
Middleweight Jermall Charlo (33-0, 22 KOs) would be another excellent choice for Canelo, as he’s popular and he recently returned to the ring after a long absence. He looked good, beating Jose Benavidez Jr. by a ten round unanimous decision on November 25th.
The network platform still needs to be determined because Showtime will no longer be showing boxing after this year. There are rumors that PBC will be moving to Amazon Prime, which could be a good place for Canelo to fight in May.
“Crawford knows it’s the biggest payday of his life. What he’ll get against Canelo, he’ll never make in all his fights combined,” said Robert Garcia to ESNEWS, on the money Terence Crawford can get fighting Canelo.
“Why would he call out Benavidez when he can fight Canelo and make double the money? He wants to make the biggest payday. Everybody has a chance, but I think he’ll put up a good fight. He’ll lose to Canelo, but he’ll put up some good rounds than [Jermell] Charlo did.
“He’ll [Crawford] will fight. He’ll get knocked out, but he’ll get in some good rounds. He won’t b*** out. He’ll get knocked out, but he’ll put up some good rounds. That’s better than Charlo did. He’ll get beat, but at least try.”
Crawford would be an excellent choice for Canelo to fight in May, because it would give fans a great match-up, and more time to get about what Alvarez did to Jermall’s brother Jermell.
The last thing Canelo needs is for fans to confuse Jermall with Jermell, and turn up their noses about ordering a fight between him and the big Charlo on PPV.
Crawford still has a rematch that he needs to get out of the way against Errol Spence Jr. first before he can face Canelo in May.
