Canelo Alvarez hasn’t ruled out a fight between him and Terence Crawford taking place. This comes after the news of the WBO ordering 154-lb champion Sebastian Fundora to defend against Crawford next. The two fighters have 30 days to negotiate a deal if they choose to go forward with the WBO’s order.
According to Fundora’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, he believes Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) only wants the money and will wait patiently until after Canelo defends his three super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga on September 14th before he decides whether to fight for the WBO belt against Sebastian.
Canelo’s Non-Committal Stance Keeps the Door Open
“I’m not saying that fight can’t happen. That order doesn’t matter,” said Canelo to BoxingScene.
Canelo’s message means Crawford will wait and see what happens with that fight before he potentially fights Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) for his two belts.
Crawford, 36, needs to consider his options carefully because if he doesn’t get the Canelo fight, he could be asking for trouble taking on the 6’6″ Fundora, who has the youth, power, work rate, and style is bad for aging, once a year fighters.
Fundora is not the type of guy you want to fight when you’re new to the 154-lb division and are coming off a razor-close 12-round decision against Israil Madrimov on August 3rd.
That version of Crawford would be easy prey for Fundora, and he could take a really bad beating from him. Whatever dreams Crawford has about one day getting the Canelo retirement payday would evaporate overnight with a loss to Fundora.
If money is Crawford’s sole focus, he can probably make more by fighting Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis than challenging Fundora for his two belts.
Fans would be very interested in seeing Crawford take on the unbeaten Ennis (32-0, 29 KOs), viewed as the next star in the sport at 147. Boots would come up to 154 to challenge Crawford for his newly won WBA title.
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