Terence Crawford told the media today at the Riyadh press conference that his rationale for wanting to fight Canelo Alvarez is because he’s “the last great fighter” from the past era that he didn’t get a chance to fight. He says he missed out on “mega-fights” during his 17-year career.
Legacy or Lucrative Payday?
So, he pushed hard to get the clash, and Turki Alalshikh allowed him to face the superstar Canelo. Fans see it a different way. Many believe that Crawford’s motivation is the huge financial payday he’ll be getting, which will more than double his estimated net worth of $20 million.
They don’t believe Terence is doing this for legacy purposes, but rather greed, looking to build a large nest egg for his retirement years. Crawford’s (41-0, 31 KOs) decision not to move up to 168 and fight some of the top contenders in the year that he’s been inactive had reinforced the belief that it’s just about money.
Crawford’s Missed “Mega-Fights”
“Listen, I called Canelo out because he’s the last great fighter amongst the era that surpassed us,” said Terence Crawford during today’s press conference in Riyadh. “The Floyd, the Pacquiao, the De La Hoya. We both came up in that era, and he was right there with those fighters.
“He got a chance to fight the Miguel Cottos, Floyd Mayweathers, the Kovalev and GGG. I wasn’t able to get those mega-fights. So, this is my mega-fight, this is my moment. That’s the reason why I want to fight an all-time great like Canelo.”
Ambitious Now, Not Then?
Crawford sounds like he’s making excuses. He had plenty of time to move up to 147, 154, 160, 175 earlier in his career to fight Cotto, Mayweather, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Sergey Kovalev.
You can argue that it was Crawford’s lack of ambition and risk-taking that led to his missing out on those fights. If he’d bulked up like he’s doing now, he’d have gotten those fights. If he had shown some courage to risk failure, he could have potentially fought all those fighters.
The fact that Crawford didn’t move up to fight those guys reinforces the belief that the only reason he’s moving up to fight Canelo now is for the big payday he’s going to get.