By Allan Fox: Terence Crawford – or whoever operates his social media site – is starting to sound like a broken record, repeating for the umpteenth time that a fight between him and Canelo Alvarez is the “biggest fight in boxing.”
Canelo (59-2-2 39 KOs) has already politely told Crawford to get lost by saying he’s only fought one big name during his 15-year career.
If Crawford doesn’t understand what Canelo told him, Allan Fox will decode his non-cryptic message. Canelo says Crawford lacks the prerequisite resume to share the ring with him. That’s it.
Crawford should have stepped it up years ago instead of waiting until he was 36, with just one semi-decent win on his resume against a drained Errol Spence, thinking that good enough to meet with the king, Canelo.
The only way Crawford has any chance of getting with Canelo in the next three years, he’s got to move up to 168 and beat these fighters:
- David Benavidez
- David Morrell Jr.
- Dmitry Bivol
- Demetrius Andrade
- Diego Pacheco
- Caleb Plant
If Crawford wants the Canelo fight bad enough, and if he’s as good as he thinks he is, he’ll tread through this minefield to get to the pot of gold waiting for him against the Mexican star.
If Crawford gets blown up along the way by stepping on a lethal Green Parrot mine, losing Benavidez or Morrell, at least he tried to earn the Canelo fight instead of expecting it to be given to him on a silver platter.
Canelo vs Crawford is the biggest fight in boxing. There’s no fighter out there that’s a bigger fight then us.
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) September 8, 2023
Crawford has Spence problems
“I think it’s going to be different. The only reason why I said that is because if it was the weight problem, I think it’d be different, but if it was a medical problem that he [Spence] had something wrong upstairs [with his brain], I think it would probably be the same,” said Derek ‘Bozy’ Ennis to YSM Sports Media about the Crawford vs. Spence rematch being different if Errol’s loss last July was due to him being weight drained.
It’s obvious that Spence wasn’t himself for the Crawford, and it’s understandable, given that he reportedly started camp at 190 lbs.
The rematch will be at 154, which will make it easier for Spence to make weight next time around. Knowing what happened last time, Spence won’t let his weight get out of control before he starts camp.
“If it wasn’t a medical problem because he did look dry when it came out [for the Crawford fight],” said Bozy. “His face was red. I never saw him like that before, and then I seen him get hit with a jab and buckled. Nah, that’s not Spence. So, something was wrong with him.
“I can’t take nothing away from Crawford. He looked spectacular, he looked good, but Spence wasn’t the Spence that I know, and you know, and everybody else knows.
“He [Crawford] did look specular doing it, but everybody knows that wasn’t the real Spence. The punishment he took? It could,” said Bozy when asked if the punishment Spence took in the fight could play a factor in the rematch.
Is December too soon?
“It all depends on how long he’s going to stay out before he has the rematch. They said December. I don’t know if that’s enough time [for Spence to recover],” said Bozy.
In a perfect world, Spence will take the rematch with Crawford next March or April because December is too quick of a turnaround.
“If they do, it’s not going to go right. He still has to give that [IBF welterweight] title up,” said Bozy when asked if it’ll be the same outcome if Crawford fights the rematch with Spence at 147 instead of 154.
“We can’t let that happen. You can fight for them [welterweight] other belts, but you ain’t fighting for that title, the IBF, because we’ve [Jaron Boots Ennis] have been mandatory for a long time [over a year],” said Bozy.
