His Excellency Turki Alalshikh revealed that he’s working on a clash between undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford for late this year in 20424 or in early 2025 in New York, Las Vegas or Los Angeles for a large stadium.
Crawford’s Path to Canelo
Assuming the 36-year-old Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) wins his match against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd, he’d be getting back in the ring to begin training almost immediately for a fight against Canelo in December or early 2025.
“I want this fight. And we are thinking to do it in America because we want it huge,” said Turki Alalshikh to Ariel Helwani’s site.
A Fight with Massive Appeal
Canelo-Crawford should do big PPV numbers from U.S fans, but obviously not in the same ballpark if Alvarez were to bite the bullet and fight David Benavidez.
That’s a fight that would be huge if it could be made. Crawford is a decent pick along the same lines as last year’s match between Canelo and former undisputed junior middleweight champion Jermell Charlo.
We’re looking at the same thing with a guy with zero experience at 168 going up in weight to be given a title shot against Canelo without earning it and skipping the line in front of all the contenders.
It’s not quite as bad as last year’s match because the two talented fighters at 168 have left the division, moving up to 175 to fight for belts.
Crawford’s Leap of Faith
It’s a lot to ask of Crawford, who would be moving up two weight divisions to fight Canelo at 168, with just one match under his belt at 154. Crawford will be coming off a year layoff when he fights in August against Madrimov, and there’s no telling how that fight will turn out.
I see it as a questionable move with Crawford going up two divisions to challenge Canelo for his four belts at super middleweight without ever having fought in the weight class. Crawford is up there in age at 36, and we don’t even know if he’ll win his fight on August 3rd when he battles for the 154-lb belt.
I mean, I would at least like to see Crawford move up to 160 to take on one of the big dogs in that division to prove himself in some way that he’s worthy of fighting Canelo.
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