His Excellency Turki Alalshikh said today in an interview that Terence Crawford will be fighting “after May. He has a “small injury” but will be ready to fight in the first half of 2025.
Turki didn’t say who Crawford’s potential opponent would be (41-0, 31 KOs), but he said he would like to talk to Canelo Alvarez one-on-one “without anyone in the middle.”
He could be trying to negotiate a fight with Crawford, who would need to move up two weight classes to 168 to challenge Canelo for his unified super middleweight titles.
Crawford has expressed no desire to earn a title shot against Canelo by moving up to face any of the contenders at 168. After his problems against Israil Madrimov at 154 on August 3rd, it’s perfectly understandable why he’d be reluctant to do that.
Turki’s Statement
“I don’t know anyone from Canelo’s team, and I don’t have any connection, but if he’s hearing me, I’m ready to discuss what I want to discuss, me and him, directly without anyone in the middle,” said His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to Ariel Hewwani’s channel about wanting to make a fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford.
“He has a small health issue, but he prefers to fight with us after May,” said Turki about Terence Crawford being injured.
If Turki can’t swing a deal for Canelo to fight Crawford, that’s going to leave the Nebraska native with some tough options in the 154-lb division. That weight class is teaming with dangerous sharks that would feast on the aging Crawford, who came close to losing to Madrimov on August 3rd.
Canelo is already sitting on a fortune estimated to be a quarter of a billion. He’s not going to lose any sleep by turning down a fight against Crawford, who will be using the Mayweather blueprint against him. Canelo doesn’t want to deal with a mover & clincher at this late stage of his career, especially in a no-win fight where he won’t receive credit if he wins.
If Canelo struggles to win, that makes Crawford look great and tarnishes the legacy of the Mexican star. Canelo’s marketability goes down while Crawford’s goes up. Unless Turki wants to offer Alvarez $180 million, I don’t see the fight with Terence happening. You have to figure that whatever Canelo asks for, Crawford will want similar dough, and it wouldn’t bring in a lot of PPV buys.
Bud is a complete unknown with the casual fans. He’s NEVER been popular during his career because he doesn’t have an entertaining style and never did. The fans who saw Crawford’s fight with Errol Spence assumed that’s how he always fights, but that is not the case. He only looked good in that fight because Spence was a shell of his former self due to injuries from his two crashes, eye problems, inactivity, and weight gain.
