Terence Crawford may have landed a fight with Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez, with both fighters meeting with Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh recently and reports suggesting the bout is agreed.
To make it happen, Crawford must jump up two weight classes from his last outing. He will challenge Canelo for his super-middleweight belts – a division the Mexican has dominated for some time.
Many feel that the weight jump is too much for even a man of Crawford’s standing to handle. In mid-2024, boxing’s oldest ever world champion, Bernard Hopkins, made it clear that he was firmly a part of that thinking in an interview with Fight Hub TV. The 59-year-old said, “size does matter.”
“That’s ridiculous. That’s why we have weight classes. Size does matter… In most cases. Forget those moments in history where size didn’t matter – that’s why it’s history. Most of the time, it’s the right call. I think [Crawford] got a lot of fish to fry underneath, where he’s comfortable. Don’t put yourself at a disadvantage. Put yourself at an advantage.”
Despite winning world titles at middleweight and light-heavyweight himself – a 15 pound difference – Hopkins has always felt the match-up is wrong, staking his claim to FightHype in late 2023 that the fight would never happen.
“How are we talking about Crawford-Canelo. Crawford cares about his life right? What does that fight do for Canelo if Crawford beats him? What does that do for him? I just think there are so many other fights to make that are realistic and make sense and are less life risking on top of the risk when we step in the ring with guys our weight. Canelo isn’t coming down to 160lbs.
Canelo can fight a cruiserweight and give them all the hell they can handle. If you can’t hurt a guy like Canelo and you don’t have height and depth or something to work with. Then we’re going to see another boring fight. I understand the money grab, Crawford isn’t 26, we’re going to see a lot of desperate moves. It’s gossip, it’s not going to happen. I guarantee you it’s not going to happen.”
Despite other big names agreeing, the powers that be in boxing look set to make the fight happen in 2025.
