Terence Crawford’s Extreme Pursuit of a Canelo Alvarez Payday
Terence Crawford is not giving up on his pursuit of a well-paying fight against superstar Canelo Alvarez. Crawford is looking for that payday against Canelo and he will not stop looking for him.
In an interview yesterday, newly crowned WBA junior middleweight champion Crawford criticized Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) for his words about not getting credit for beating the younger guy if he wants to defend his three 168-lb titles against him. .
Crawford reminds the fans that Canelo fought fighters throughout his career and it was good to do so. But now that he is, he draws the line, saying that he will not get credit. Crawford seems very needy right now, and that should be a fault for Canelo.
The real problem preventing Crawford from getting his wish is the $150 million that Canelo wants for this fight. Crawford will get his dream fight if the Honorable Turki Alalshikh is willing to meet Canelo’s asking price. Of course, it will also depend on how much Crawford is asking for.
If he wants $150M, too, or even half of $80 million, that’s not going to happen. This war would not have created that money and bled a lot of dough for Turki. You’ll be kicking yourself later for putting together this albatross.
Unfortunately, Crawford is not popular enough to fight Canelo to command the kind of purse he would want.
Crawford’s Lackluster Resume
The Nebraska fighter was only involved in the biggest fight of his 16-year career against Errol Spence, and the other guys he fought were unpopular fighters.
Last weekend’s game was an example of that. Crawford fought WBA junior middleweight world champion Israel Madrimov in just 11 fights. That was supposed to be a big fight, but reports say the event lost a lot of money.
According to Kevin Iole, the Crawford-Madrimov event at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles lost more than $10 million, and “lots” of tickets were given away to fans.
“Canelo has been fighting underdogs his whole career,” said Terence Crawford on Shawn Porter’s YouTube channel, continuing to state that Canelo Alvarez never fought him.
Crawford fails to point out that the 5’8″ Canelo has been fighting big guys for most of his career and is considered the underdog in the 168-lb division. He has fought lightweights Dmitry Bivol and Sergiy Kovalev.
Crawford’s unwillingness to prove himself
Crawford has never fought light heavyweights or super middleweights to prove himself in the Canelo fight. He’s just coming looking for Canelo’s payday fight and he’s not talking about wanting to get it by moving up to 168 or 175 to fight the guys at the top of those weight classes.
If Crawford beats these fighters, he will have no problem getting that retirement payday for Canelo:
– David Benavidez
– Dmitry Bivol
– Artur Beterbiev
– David Morrell
Is it too much to ask Crawford to beat one or two of those fighters to get a fight with King Canelo? Why should Canelo give him a gift?
“Canelo fought a younger Floyd Mayweather, Amir Khan, Jermell Charlo. “He has all these reasons why he doesn’t want to fight me,” Crawford continued. “He said I work easily. If I was an easy worker, you would take all that money. But anyway, he wants $150 million to fight me. That just makes me know that I am a threat to him. I am a threat to him, and I am a threat to his history.”
Opposition against Canelo
According to Canelo, he recently fought a smaller fighter, Jermell Charlo, last year, and he had to deal with a lot of trouble from the media and fans. Afterwards, Canelo received little credit for his victory over Jermell.
It would be bad for Canelo if he were to fight Crawford, who is a three-weight fighter smaller than him. The fan backlash will be fierce and relentless.
The Canelo-Crawford fight will look like a joke to the fans and it’s uphill to help Crawford’s retirement which has already tasted like giving him a big salary as he leaves the sport.
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