Stephen Espinoza of Showtime believes a fight between Canelo Alvarez & Terence Crawford is “doable” if the Mexican star wants it and if he gets through his bout this Saturday night with a victory over Jermell Charlo at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Espinoza says there’s a lot of fan interest in the Canelo-Crawford fight, and there’s a “huge financial opportunity” for both fighters. Canelo initially wasn’t excited about the idea, but he seems to have changed his stance and now considering it.
What could make the difference is how well Canelo does against Jermell. If he destroys Charlo (35-1-1,19 KOs), that could give him the confidence to take the Crawford fight.
If Canelo doesn’t fight Crawford, boxing fans are going to expect him to face the winner of the David Benavidez vs. Demetrius Andrade contest, and that’s a harder match-up due to the size & power of those two.
The other option for Canelo would be to fight Jermall Charlo, but that’s not going to be as interesting because he hasn’t fought in 2+ years, and he might not be able to make it through training camp.
“I think Benavides is going about the right way. He has said from the very start, ‘If I can’t get Canelo, I’ll clean out the rest of the division,” said Stephen Espinoza to Fight Hub TV about David Benavidez wanting Canelo Alvarez.
“Whether it’s Plant and then Andrade and then Morrell or Plant, Morrell, Andrade, he’s trying to you know eliminate everybody else, so he’s the last man standing, and then he would sort of be unavoidable for Canelo at 168.
“There was a lot of chatter around it initially. Terence said, ‘Hey, a catchweight.’ Canelo said, ‘No, I’m not going to. He’s too small. Why would I go down?’ But then they both cleared it up, and I think I think it’s because of the magnitude of the opportunity.
“Clearly, fans are interested. I think it’s a huge financial opportunity for them, so I think if the fans want it, if the fight makes sense, then I think it’s very doable.
“It’s really up to Canelo where he wants to go after this. If that’s it and he wants to go in that direction, or you know, but I don’t discount [Jermell] Charlo [winning on Saturday]. It’s hard to pick against Canelo in any fight, given his resume, but I think Charlo is a guy who can give him problems.
“By the same token, if things fall a different way regarding the outcome, we could end up with Crawford versus Charlo.
