“He’s [Jermell Charlo] no longer on my hit list” – Terence Crawford

By Allan Fox: Terence Crawford says he’s no longer interested in fighting Jermell Charlo after watching how he lost to Canelo Alvarez last Saturday night in  Las Vegas.

Jermell wasn’t willing to put it all on the line, take chances, and risk getting knocked out cold by the hard-hitting ‘King’ Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs). Once Jermell felt Canelo’s power in the first round, he was like, ‘Forget this. I’m not letting him knock me out.‘

Crawford isn’t saying who he’s going to fight to get the mega-money now that he’s scratched Jermell  Charlo off his list because Bud can forget about Canelo. After all, the Mexican star said last night, “He’s not in my plans.”

A rematch with Errol Spence is one guaranteed massive payday for Crawford, but beyond that fight, it’s difficult to see any huge fights for Crawford unless he does something drastic like moving up to 168 to fight the killers in that weight division.

Keith Thurman is a good option for Bud at 147, but if he fights him, he’s going to get criticized by fans because ‘One Time’ is old, prematurely balding & inactive. Thurman has fought only three times in the last six years since 2017.

If Crawford is going to fight welterweight, he needs to bite the bullet and defend against his IBF mandatory Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, who is clearly the best fighter in the 147-lb division at this stage of the game.

Like many fans, Crawford was disappointed in what he saw from Jermell because he felt he should have made more effort to win by standing his ground and showing some actual courage.

Jermell (35-2-1,19 KOs) fought passively, backing up constantly and letting undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo (60-2-2, 39 KOs) control the rounds with his pressure.

“[Jermell Charlo], you went out sad. Didn’t even try to win. All you did was try to survive. You should be ashamed of yourself,” said Terence Crawford on social media.

Ok y’all I’m over @TwinCharlo he’s no longer on my hit list. He went out there and laid down and let Canelo spank him like he was his daddy with no type of resistance.😂

— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) October 1, 2023

It shouldn’t have been a surprise to Crawford how bad Jermell looked against Canelo because this is the fighter he’s always been. Jermell has always been this type of fighter, and the only reason he enjoyed so much success in the last seven years was due to the careful match-making by his management.

You hate to say it, but Jermell was a creation of careful match-making, a manufactured fighter, another Adrien Broner type. The best guys that Jermell has fought in the last seven years were the flawed fighters Tony Harrison, Erickson Lubin, Jeison Rosario, and Brian Castano.

If you look back at Jermell’s earlier fights against Vanes Martirosyan, Gabriel Rosado & Demetrius Hopkins, he was always timid when fighting opposition that backed him up and fought aggressively.