Turki Al-Sheikh said today that he didn’t want Canelo Alvarez to fight Jake Paul in May because he felt it wouldn’t “benefit” a match between him and Terence Crawford for September in Las Vegas.
Fans overwhelmingly view Canelo vs. Crawford as a circus-level cash-grab type of fight. There’s no other way of looking at it. Crawford will be 38 in September, looked below average in his debut at 154, and will be moving up two divisions to fight Canelo at 168 in a one-off. That’s a circus fight for fans who follow the sport.
If Crawford moved up to 168 and defeated two or three fighters to show that he’s not just looking for money, then it wouldn’t be a circus fight for him to go up against Canelo. Crawford isn’t going to do that because he’s physically capable of beating super middleweight contenders. He barely won his last fight at 154, and looked as old as the hills.
Building The “Big Fight”
They’d rather see Canelo fight David Benavidez or the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Dmitry Bivol rematch than see him beat up on an old, small Crawford, who is just looking to get a big payday before retiring. It’s doubtful that Crawford will continue fighting after he loses to Canelo unless he’s given a rematch or paid a boatload of money by Turki to fight one of the 154-lb fighters.
Turki views Canelo-Crawford as “the big fight,” and he wants it to be set up by Canelo taking a “good” or “great” fight in May. He didn’t mention who that would be against, but Mike Coppinger leaked that Bruno Surace and Jermall Charlo are the two being considered for Canelo’s May 4th fight in Riyadh.
Turki says he didn’t match the purse figure that Canelo would have received for a fight against Jake Paul. That’s understandable. Canelo fighting Surance or Jermall Charlo will not bring in big PPV numbers.
Surace is only known by hardcore boxing fans for his upset of Jaime Munguia last December. Jermall is 34, inactive, has fought just once since 2021, and has lost interest in the sport. That’s not a “good fight” for Canelo. He would have been better off taking the fight against Jake if it had paid more than facing either of the two.
“We said to him, ‘Please choose great fight because we are building for the big fight,’” said Turki Al-Sheikh to ESPN about wanting Canelo Alvarez to fight a good opponent for his fight in May so they can build for the “big fight” against Terence Crawford clash on September 13th.
“Him and Crawford accepted the fight in Saudi Arabia, the big fight, but we on Riyadh Season know how big this fight. It’s important in America. For that, we prefer to do it in Vegas. Then we heard it [Canelo vs. Jake Paul] was close. It was not to our benefit becasue we are building the big fight for Crawford.
“We want him [Canelo] to do a good fight, great fight in May [against Jermall Charlo or Bruno Surace],” said Turki.
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