Promoter Eddie Hearn says he doesn’t think it’s a good idea for Canelo Alvarez to fight Terence Crawford again after his loss to him on September 13th. He states that Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) will beat him in a rematch, and it would be no different than the first fight.
Rematch Clause? Pride Says No
Canelo (63-3-2, 39 KOs) hasn’t said who he wants to fight in the remaining two fights in his contract with Turki Alalshikh. Fighting Crawford again would give him a big payday, but he’s already got a massive fortune estimated at $300 million. He doesn’t need additional money if it means he’s likely to lose again.
“I believe they have a rematch clause with some kind of wording because Canelo doesn’t enter a fight without some kind of wording,” said Eddie Hearn to Fight Hub TV about whether Canelo Alvarez will take a rematch with Terence Crawford.
Canelo likely does have a rematch clause, but given the embarrassment that he went through in his loss to Crawford on September 13th, it’s unlikely that he would dare to attempt a second fight.
Alvarez has always been calculated in the fights he’d taken. He has pride and chose not to fight David Benavidez or take a rematch after losing to Dmitry Bivol. It’s highly doubtful that Canelo will fight Terence again, even though he could make a lot of money doing so.
Crawford’s Style Still a Nightmare for Canelo
“It’s just not going to be Terence Crawford. The style is all wrong for him, and the movement is all wrong for him,” said Hearn. “Going into the fight, I thought Crawford would win with the style that he did. Canelo knew it was all wrong for him.”
Turki’s $150M Gamble Backfired
The money that Turki Alalshikh offered Canelo to fight Crawford is likely the only reason he agreed to this fight. He knew what he was getting himself into, but the $150 million made it worthwhile. Turki doesn’t seem eager to put on a second fight. He’s got to know that the match didn’t live up to fans’ expectations, and those were not $200 million-type performances from Alvarez and Crawford.
They were like the type of fight one would get for fighters making in the thousands. Really, fighters on prelims put on more entertaining performances than Canelo and Crawford did. The biggest reason why Turki might not want to do a second fight is that the viewing numbers on Netflix were dwarfed by Jake Paul’s match against Mike Tyson.
Forty-one million viewers watched the Canelo-Crawford event on Netflix. In contrast, 108 million tuned in to see Jake Paul fight 59-year-old Mike Tyson on Netflix. If Jake’s exhibition match against Gervonta Davis on November 14th does bigger numbers than Canelo vs. Crawford, that would clinch it.
Benavidez and Jake Paul Were Better Options
There would be no point in Turki throwing more money away on a fight that fans aren’t excited to see. It was a bad idea in the first place to use Crawford as Canelo’s opponent rather than David Benavidez or Jake Paul.
“Anyone who has got movement like Scull, and like Crawford, he really struggles against. The biggest money fight out there for him is a rematch with Crawford, but I don’t think he’s going to want to do that,” said Hearn.
Canelo has never done well against movers, especially when that’s their main strategy for winning, like we saw with Crawford and William Scull. Alvarez would be better off focusing on fighting stationary fighters for his final two fights on his contract with Riyadh Season than fighting Crawford and dealing with all that movement again.
Jeepers Isaac has been covering boxing since 2020, bringing readers sharp ringside insights and timely analysis on the sport’s biggest moments.