Turki Al-Shiekh revealed the fights he wants to see happening in the sport. One of the top ones in terms of global appeal is Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford at Super Middleweight.
It’s going to be a difficult fight for Turki to put together in 2025 because the unified three-belt 168-lb champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) has shown no interest in giving Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) the opportunity to fight him. It’s understandable, though.
Turki’s Wishlist
- Canelo Alvarez vs. Terence Crawford
- Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury
- Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney 2
- Oleksandr Usyk vs. Daniel Dubois 2
- Chris Eubank Jr. vs. Conor Benn
Of these fights, a Ryan Garcia vs. Devin Haney rematch would be appealing to a lot of fans worldwide. It might be the biggest fight in boxing that can be made. British promoter Eddie Hearn insists that Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury is the biggest one in the sport. It’s not. There’s no appeal to that old-timer’s fight. That fight is no longer interesting, and it was never a great one to begin with due to the lack of solid wins for the two British fighters during their careers.
Ryan Garcia (24-1, 20 KOs) wants to show the fans that his victory over former two-division world champion Haney (31-0, 15 KOs) from last year wasn’t due to him using Ostarine. That’s the picture that Devin and his father, Bill Haney, painted to explain their defeat last year.
The Brits want to see Joshua vs. Fury and Eubank Jr. vs. Benn, but Americans have zero interest in these fights. Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury are seen as washed-up old heavyweights who never beat great opposition.
They’re just pampered, manufactured fighters—never the real thing. U.S. fans don’t care about them, and they definitely don’t have any interest in a domestic-level fight between Chris Eubank Jr. and Conor Benn. Those two aren’t world-class and never were.
Canelo vs. Crawford?
Canelo has nothing to gain from fighting a smaller, older fighter who fights two weight classes below him. Crawford would need to gain 14 lbs to make his first appearance at 168. This fight is just a vehicle for Crawford to get retirement money. Terence looked old and woefully bad in his debut at 154 against Israel Madrimov last August.
The performance showed that Terence isn’t cut out of the junior middleweight division and would lose eventually if he took the risk of fighting the power punchers Bakhram Murtazaliev, Serhii Bohachuk, and Vergil Ortiz Jr. Those guys would knock some chips off Crawford, likely all beating him, and ruing his useless Canelo retirement dream.
The Mexican star would perhaps be more open to giving the Nebraska native Bud Crawford a title shot if he were courageous enough to move up to super middleweight and defeat two or three top fighters. Crawford doesn’t plan on doing that for obvious reasons. He just wants the Canelo fight given to him, and you can’t respect that.
Turki can make the Canelo-Crawford fight happen this year if he offers Alvarez a ton of money that he hasn’t seen during his long career. The Mexican star’s net worth is estimated at a quarter billion. So, for Al-Shiekh to get that fight made, he may need to offer Canelo over $100 million.
You have to assume that Crawford would want to wet his beak on at least half of that if not more. Financially, it doesn’t make sense. Crawford isn’t a draw, and the fight won’t come close to breaking even.
“I want to see Eubank-Benn. Also, of course, Tyson and Joshua. [Moses] Itauma deserves to be the youngest heavyweight champion,” said Turki Al-Shiekh on Froch on Fighting YouTube channel about fights he wants to see in 2025.
“He still has one year to reach this number [correction: Moses Itauma has until May 19, 2025, to break Mike Tyson’s record of becoming the youngest heavyweight champion],” Turki continued.
“In the American market, I want to see Canelo-Crawford. I want to see Garcia-Haney, the rematch.”
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