Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford could be on the cusp of squaring off after meeting with Turki Alalshikh over the weekend
Julius Julianis reports that Turki Alalshikh’s long-desired clash between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford is on the horizon, as the two have made a deal to meet this coming September in Las Vegas.
Per Jake Donovan, the two met separately with Alalshikh in London over the weekend.
Julianis adds that Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KO) still intends to compete in May against an opponent to be named, “most likely” IBF super middleweight champion William Scull. Alvarez vacated the belt last year rather than make a mandatory defense, but while I’m ordinarily 100% behind unifications, I’m hopeful they don’t fight. The IBF belt has become the division’s only source of upward mobility and I’d hate to see Canelo go back to squatting on it right as a bevy of entertaining contenders like Christian Mbilli, Diego Pacheco, and Osleys Iglesias get within spitting distance.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KO) currently holds both the WBA super welterweight title, taken from Israil Madrimov, and the interim WBO belt. The latter’s in a weird spot where he supposedly stepped aside for Sebastian Fundora vs Errol Spence Jr, but that fight’s been stuck in limbo for ages.
As for this fight, I really think this is going to look more like Canelo vs Charlo than Turki and co. think. I would very much prefer Crawford, who’s fought five times in the last six years, go for three-weight undisputed status instead of wasting his annual bout on someone two weight classes above.
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