A bitter Terence Crawford vented his frustration about losing out on the big fish, Canelo Alvarez, today.
Crawford feels that unified super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t want to fight him because he’s worried about his legacy if he loses. He would look bad in front of his fans getting beaten by a brighter who started his career at 135.
Canelo’s Financial Demands
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh decided he didn’t want to continue trying to make a fight between Canelo and Crawford because the Mexican star wanted a lot of money. $150 million has been floated around for what Canelo wanted for that fight.
From Canelo’s perspective, when you hear Tyson Fury getting $100+ million to fight Oleksandr Usyk in their first fight last May and likely a lot more for the rematch on December 21st, the $150 million Canelo wants isn’t unreasonable.
Turki Alalshikh’s prerogative is not to pay Canelo his asking price for the Crawford fight, but you can understand why he’s asking for that number. Canelo-Crawford is a much bigger fight in the U.S. than Fury-Usyk. But if Turki does want the Canelo vs. Crawford fight badly enough, he’ll pay him.
Impact of Crawford’s Recent Performance
We don’t know if Turki has given up on his plans for a fight between them because of Crawford’s unimpressive win over WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov last Saturday night in Los Angeles. Crawford barely edged the fight against a fighter lacking Canelo’s power, offense, or talent.
Crawford’s reaction time to punches looked slow. He took a lot of big shots, and his power was not at the 154-pound level. His shots were at the lower spectrum of a 147-pounder. So, if Crawford can’t punch at the 154-pound level, he will be in trouble at 168.
Crawford being overmatched by Canelo wouldn’t stop Turki from making the fight because the match would still still. However, when Canelo blows Crawford out of the water, fans will be angry and feel ripped off.
Who are they going to blame? The guy that put the fight together, Turki. He knows now that Crawford has no chance against Canelo. So, it makes sense for him to back away from trying to make that fight.
“That was my motivation,” Terence Crawford said on the Sean Zittel YouTube channel about Canelo Alvarez being his motivation to continue his career after his win over Israil Madrimov last Saturday night.
Crawford revealed that his motivation was to get the Canelo fight after his match with Madrimov, and now that’s no longer possible, and he’s not happy.
“It’s crazy and it makes me laugh with what Canelo is saying in the media about he won’t get no credit,” but Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his whole career as Crawford.
Canelo With Little To Gain
It’s unclear if Crawford is pretending not to understand Canelo’s motivations for not fighting him. If so, Canelo will not get credit for winning and will be vilified throughout the promotion.
If Crawford is slightly competitive, he comes across as a hero, whereas Canelo is dumped on. You don’t hear Crawford saying he wants to fight lightweight Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson because he knows the boxing public would ridicule him if he tried to fight those guys. They’re so much smaller.
It’s not true that Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his entire career. Here are examples of Canelo fighting bigger fighters:
– Dmitry Bivol
– Sergey Kovalev
– Jaime Munguia
– James Kirkland
“Canelo has been making his own catchweight for years. He fought a smaller Mayweather,” said Crawford. “Canelo fought a smaller Amir Khan and Jermell Charlo. I’m pretty sure he didn’t make as much money as all those guys except Mayweather. Even Berlanga right now, as he would against me, yet he has all these excuses for why he doesn’t want to take a fight with me.”
Crawford was bigger than many opponents when he fought at 135 and 140. He’d always been better than his opponents in those two weight divisions, and he took advantage of his size. Crawford is an A-1 hypocrite for saying Canelo has been fighting smaller guys his entire career when he’s done the same thing.
“If it’s all about business, you’re doing good business. I heard him say I’m easy work. If I’m easy, you would take all that money that he’s [Turki Alalshikh] is offering you, yet he wants $200 million to fight Benavidez and $150 million to fight me,” said Crawford.
If His Excellency isn’t giving Canelo the $150 million he reportedly requested, you can’t blame him for choosing not to fight Crawford. That’s what he feels the fight is worth. If Turki doesn’t want to pay it, that’s on him. Instead of Crawford getting mad at Canelo, he needs to ask Turki why he didn’t want to put up the dough for the fight.
“So, that just lets me know that I’m a threat to him. I’m a threat to him, and I’m a threat to his legacy because it would be crazy for a guy [Crawford] that started at 135 to come all the way up to your weight [168]. Your weight, not catchweight, no none of that and dethrone you,” said Crawford.
Canelo doesn’t view Crawford as a threat to his legacy because he’s too fragile and not built sturdy enough to fight a strong-boned fighter like him. For Crawford to stand a chance against Canelo, he would need Gennadiy Golovkin’s size and power. He doesn’t have that. He’s weak and not young, turning 37 in September.
“So, he’s got that in the back of his head. ‘This guy [Crawford talking in the third person], for one, he’s tough. For two, he’s a boxer. He moves, he can punch, he can do it all. I can’t slip up and lose to this little guy. Then what will my fans think of me? What will my Mexican fans think of me?’” said Crawford about Canelo.
It’s a no-win situation for Canelo to fight an aging 154-pounder like Crawford, coming off a poor performance in a fight that many fans saw him losing against Madrimov. Those are likely Canelo’s concerns. It’s a no-win situation for Canelo, just as it would be if Crawford decided to fight super bantamweight Naoya Inoue.
“So, it’s a big risk for him, like he said. He doesn’t get anything out of it. None of those guys were the pound-for-pound best fighters in the world that he fought when they were coming up in weight. None of those guys,” said Crawford.
Being a so-called pound-for-pound fighter doesn’t mean anything in terms of money. If Crawford wants to call himself a pound-for-pound fighter, that’s great, but he’s not marketable and not a big PPV attraction.
The only people who follow the pound-for-pound ratings are ultra-hardcore fans. Casual fans don’t look at those ratings to decide whether to purchase a fight on PPV.
“He wasn’t getting the amount of money thrown at him guaranteed for those guys that he’s getting against me,” said Crawford about Canelo’s past fights. “So, it just goes to show the level of respect. I look at it as respect that he gives me. I don’t look at it as disrespect.”
This shows that Canelo has a price he’s asking for, and apparently, His Excellency isn’t interested in paying him the kind of money he wants. With his estimated fortune of $250 million, Canelo has so much money now that he can ask for a price for a specific fight. If he doesn’t get it, it’s no big deal because he’s got plenty of other fighters he can face and continue making good money.
Canelo’s Perception of Crawford
“I look at it as the level of respect that he thinks of me as a fighter. Right now, I’m still doing what I do,” said Crawford when asked if he might retire and leave the game now rather than stay around.
Canelo likely sees Crawford as an aging, smaller fighter with a boring Mayweather-esque fighting style, looking for a golden parachute payday to help his retirement years. Alvarez said he saw Madrimov as the true winner of their fight.
He thinks Crawford should have lost the fight to Madrimov, and so do a lot of boxing fans. It doesn’t help Canelo to fight Crawford with him coming off of a controversial win.
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