By Allan Fox: Trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre says he’ll have Terence Crawford ready to fight Canelo Alvarez for his undisputed super middleweight throne after they study his fights and come up with a game plan.
IBF/WBA/WBC/WBO 168-lb champion Canelo hasn’t said anything about giving the 36-year-old Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) a voluntary title shot without having to earn it by beating top contenders and moving up the rankings in a usual way.
Is Crawford willing to earn title shot at 168?
If Canelo insists that Crawford must earn his shot by beating the likes of David Benavidez, David Morrell Jr., & Dmitry Bivol, we’ll see if the Omaha, Nebraska native is still eager to try and challenge for the undisputed championship at 168.
Alvarez doesn’t owe Crawford a free title shot based on his one significant career win over a weight-drained, car crash-depleted Errol Spence Jr.
If Crawford wants to fight for a world title at 168, he’s probably going to need to work hard for the opportunity because if he thinks that having to work his way up the rankings for a crack at the super middleweight championship doesn’t apply to him, he’s kidding himself. That’s not how it is in life, and it certainly isn’t that way at 168.
Crawford seems to have a sense of entitlement, believing he deserves special treatment after his recent win over Errol Spence. Crawford wants to use that victory at 147 to be allowed to skip the line to challenge Canelo without earning it.
It appears that Crawford doesn’t want to work hard to earn the title shot at 168 by toiling away like other contenders that have been competing in the division, like Benavidez, for instance.
If Crawford were allowed to skip the line to fight for the four belts at 168 without working for the privilege, it would send a wrong message to other fighters and the public. It makes boxing seem less like a sport.
“Moving to 168, Bud kind of walks around at that weight or close to that weight. So, I don’t see nothing wrong with fighting up there. Bud i one of those guys that likes to challenge himself,” said trainer Brian ‘BoMac’ McIntyre to RingIQ TV about Terence Crawford moving up to 168 to challenge undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez for his four titles next.
Canelo will be picked apart
“We’ll do what we’ll always do. We’ll go to the classroom, pick him [Canelo] apart. We’ll pick his a** apart, and we’ll take what we know in the classroom and put it in the gym so we can come out victorious.
“Yeah, [Jermell] Charlo at 154,” said BoMack when asked if he’d like for Crawford to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis or Jermell Charlo next. “Terence said he’d like to be undisputed in that weight class [junior middleweight], and plus, he wants to fight Charlo bad. I wouldn’t see anything bad about going after Charlo.
All this sounds great from BoMac about coming up with a plan to defeat Caneelo, but what about Crawford earning the fight with the Mexican star? Is BoMac ready for Crawford to run the gauntlet against these killers:
1. David Benavidez
2. David Morrell Jr.
3. Diego Pacheco
4. Dmitry Bivol
5. Caleb Plant
Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis not on Crawford’s radar
“Boots? A young kid trying to make a name for himself, he doesn’t bring anything to the table [for Crawford],” said BoMac. “Terence is thinking about greatness. Pretty much [a lose-lose for Crawford]. If they made him fight him, they put stipulations on him, we’d do the same thing that we do to everybody else.
“We’d take our a** to the classroom, pick his a** apart, take it to the gym, and to the gym, we’d got to the fight,” said BoMac on what they would do if Crawford were forced to defend against his IBF mandatory challenger Boots Ennis.
