The General Entertainment Authority appear to have ruled out attempting to make a fight between Terence Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.
Crawford on Saturday won the WBA junior-middleweight title from Israil Madrimov at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, in what represented the first Riyadh Season card staged in the US.
It is little secret that they had plans to next match Crawford – perhaps the world’s finest fighter – with Alvarez, the highest profile, at 168lbs.
Whether their plans are changing because Crawford was less impressive in his first fight since moving up to 154lbs or because Alvarez, who next fights Edgar Berlanga on September 14, remains unclear. But by listing the other fighters they have plans for – David Benavidez, who the world has most wanted to be matched with Alvarez, is among them – they appear on course to proceed without the Mexican.
Alvarez, 34, remains widely recognised as the American fight market’s biggest draw, but Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of the GEA, posted on social media: “Just wrapped up an important meeting now with my team, planing for the upcoming fights that we will make for 2024-2025. I decided to disregard the Canelo fight, as I don’t want it anymore.
“Instead, I will be focusing for the US market with bigger fights, especially for the legend Crawford.
“Additionally, I will support making fights for Boots, Haney, Shakur, Ortiz, Anderson, Benavidez, Zepeda and more. Regarding Tim Tszyu, there’s something unclear with the communications from his team with our team, so I believe I will reconsider his situation, and for the rest of the world, definitely, I am focusing on Riyadh Season card, Wembley edition 21st of September (AJ versus Dubois) and depending on the results and the results of Riyadh Season’s opening card (Bivol versus Beterbiev) on the 12th of October, I will build the card for the rematch of Fury versus Usyk on the 21st of December and another big card on the first quarter of 2025. Stay tuned.”
There had already been suggestions that the GEA would attempt to add the sought-after fight between Shakur Stevenson and William Zepeda to the same promotion in Saudi Arabia led by the postponed undisputed light-heavyweight title fight between Dmitrii Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. Vergil Ortiz had previously been on course to fight Tim Tszyu on the undercard of Madrimov-Crawford; Oleksandr Usyk-Tyson Fury II, regardless, is to take place in Riyadh.
Devin Haney and Jaron “Boots” Ennis have come to be recognised as two of America’s finest fighters; it is also likely significant that Jared Anderson, who lost on Saturday when his undefeated record was risked against Martin Bakole, was mentioned, given fears already exist for his future as a consequence of that defeat.
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