Canelo Alvarez reiterated today that he’s “not” interested in fighting Terence Crawford, and he never asked for that matchup. The Mexican star Canelo sent a strong message to His Excellency Turki Alalshikh today.
Alvarez doesn’t care that Turki is no longer interested in making the fight between him and the soon-to-be 37-year-old Crawford because he never asked for that matchup in the first place.
Not Interested, Never Asked
That was entirely on Crawford’s side, pushing for the fight to get the payday and a chance to improve his legacy, or so he claims. I suspect Crawford’s primary goal for wanting the Canelo fight is for money. Legacy is way down on the list.
Alvarez says he was texed yesterday about a potential fight against Crawford in February. He states that he told them that he’s focused on his September 14th fight against Edgar Berlanga right now.
“Crawford needs to fight Teofimo first, and then we’ll see,” said Canelo Alvarez to Fight Hub TV, reacting to His Excellency Turki Alalshikh saying he’s no longer interested in making the fight between him and Terence Crawford. “I’m not asking for that fight. They [Crawford] want to make that fight because it’s a payday obviously. I don’t want that fight. Teofimo deserves it more than me.”
I don’t know how serious Canelo was about Crawford fighting Teofimo, but if he’s serious about it, His Excellency Turki Alalshikh shouldn’t have difficulty putting together that match.
Teofimo has been calling out Crawford lately, and he’s practically begging for the opportunity to fight him. He’s even winning to move up to 154 to make the fight happen.
Crawford isn’t interested in fighting Teofimo because it won’t make him near the same money he could get fighting Canelo or some of the other fighters.
Canelo had never asked to fight Crawford. It was all on his side, so it’s not a big deal that Turki has changed his mind about making that fight because it was never on Canelo’s radar. Crawford should fight the guys in or around his weight class rather than look for a payday fighting Canelo in a division he has never competed in.
Canelo would take Crawford more seriously if he moved up to 168 and proved himself against one or two of the sharks in or around the division, like David Benavidez and David Morrell. Those would be the two preferable names that Crawford should fight to be taken seriously by Canelo, but he’s not fighting those guys because he would lose.
Besides, Crawford couldn’t even beat 154-pounder Israil Madrimov without controversy, and it looked like he’d been run over by a train at the end of the contest last Saturday night.
“My response to Turki is this: Yesterday they text me and said we can talk about that fight in February with Crawford. I said, ‘I’m not going to talk about any other fight. I’m focused 100% on this fight. Look, I don’t like the way he talk,” said Canelo about Turki Alalshikh.
If Turki wants Crawford to fight Canelo, he’s going to have to use tactics:
- Get in line
- Know your place
- Earn the fight
- Come to Canelo with the right approach
“If he wants to work with me, it’s in my way, not their way. I don’t need it. It’s not the way you approach me. I respect everybody and I respect Turki. If he wants to work with me, it needs to be my way. If have nothing to do with Crawford,” said Canelo.
So there it is. Canelo is letting Crawford know that if he wants to fight him, negotiations must be his way.
Since that fight isn’t happening for Crawford, he should show face Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis next and give Madrimov a rematch. If Crawford wins those two fights without controversy, it won’t matter if the Canelo match never happens.
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