Only Canelo Alvarez fight could bring Terence Crawford back into the ring, says Robert Garcia

At age 37, Terence Crawford may be coming to the end of an illustrious career – but there’s one more fight that eludes the four-division champ.

Omaha’s Crawford, 41-0 (31 KOs), is yet to announce a fight since decisioning Israil Madrimov at 154 in August. Crawford also became undisputed at junior welterweight and welterweight divisions.

According to trainer Robert Garcia, Crawford could retire from the sport if he doesn’t land a fight with superstar Canelo Alvarez.

“Look, Crawford is a smart man. He’s already accomplished,” Garcia said in an interview with Fight Hype. “He already did a lot. He doesn’t need to challenge himself. He doesn’t need to prove anything. I’ve talked to him personally and my feeling is he wants that big fight against Canelo, and if he doesn’t get that, he might not ever fight again.”

Crawford has a lot of options to choose from at junior middleweight if he chooses to face any of the champions such as WBC and WBO titlist Sebastian Fundora and IBF champ Bakhram Murtazaliev. Other contenders including Jermell Charlo, Vergil Ortiz Jnr, Serhii Bohachuk, and Xander Zayas are also options Crawford could explore.

But Garcia thinks otherwise.

“He doesn’t need anybody to push him to take a challenge that he doesn’t need to prove anything anymore. He’s already accomplished it. I don’t see him pleasing the fans just because they’re telling him he needs to fight this guy. He needs to fight that guy.

“He’s gonna go out there to look for the big fight, enjoy his life, man. He’s a very smart man. He’s invested his money. He doesn’t need to fight one single time at all. But he’s still looking for that big fight against Canelo. And if he gets it, he’ll take it. But besides that, he might never fight again.”

Garcia described a possible Alvarez-Crawford fight as one which would be interesting in the opening eight rounds.

“Look, I think Crawford puts up some good rounds. I think the first six, eight rounds would be very competitive. Crawford has skills, Crawford is that hard. He has a great speed, great decent power to be able to show Canelo some respect to get some respect from Canelo.

“But, eventually, I think Canelo’s too big, too strong, but for six rounds, I think you’ve got some really fun rounds.”

Bernard Neequaye is a sports journalist with a specialty in boxing coverage. He wrote a boxing column titled “From The Ringside” in his native Ghana for years. He can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) at @BernardNeequaye, LinkedIn at Bernard Neequaye and through email at [email protected].