Once upon a time, Terence Crawford had no interest in fighting Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
In 2025, it is the biggest event in boxing’s calendar, set for September in Las Vegas in the super-middleweight ranks – two classes up from Crawford’s last fight at super-welterweight.
He has been solely focused on making it happen for over a year now, but that has not always been the case. Asked about the prospect of the fight back in July 2023 before his undisputed welterweight victory Errol Spence Jr, Crawford said the weight jump was out of the question.
“What, 168? I ain’t going up there.”
He has changed course since. In fact, not long after the Spence victory was when ‘Bud’ first starting mentioning the move up to challenge Canelo for his belts. In an upcoming interview with Cigar Talk, he explained the man behind the switch in stance was one Bill Haney, father and trainer to two-weight world champion Devin.
“To be honest, I was sitting in the gym and Bill Haney came up to me and he was like, ‘Forget Spence, go fight Canelo.’ I was looking at him like, man, Canelo’s way up there. And he was like, ‘Nah. That’s your fight. Spence ain’t your fight. Canelo’s your fight. That’s the one you need to go after.”
Crawford is now all in on the fight, recently telling FightHype he is looking to make history.
“I want to challenge myself. Canelo’s a great fighter. He’s an all-time great, one of the best that came out of Mexico. I’m one of the all-time greats, I feel. Why not? Why not put it to the test? History. What do they say, big chances, big rewards. I’m looking for that big reward.”
Canelo has also had an about turn on the match-up, initially saying Crawford was too small but now signing for it to happen this coming September after he faces William Scull in May, a chance to become undisputed once more.
