Terence Crawford wants to face undisputed super-middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez before he calls time on his campaign.
The 36-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska last fought to win all four belts at welterweight, so his calling out of the Mexican has been dismissed by some as too big of a jump in weight. Others believe he has the skills to pull it off.
Speaking to FightHype about the last time Canelo welcomed a fighter up the weight classes – the Jermell Charlo fight – multi-division champion Roy Jones Jr said he was highly impressed with the Mexican.
“I was highly impressed by his performance [against Charlo]. The power he showed. He fought the proper fight for the proper opponent. You fight a guy coming up two weight classes you’re supposed to bully him. If he’d have fought Floyd Mayweather like that back in the day it’d have been a much better fight. He didn’t, but he’s learned now and that shows he’s improved and understands boxing more now because he bullied the smaller guy.
The questions then turned to Crawford, who would be making a similar jump to Charlo if he gets the fight.
“I think he’s a little big for Crawford, I’m not sure about that. Crawford does have punching power and he’s sharp, but I think Canelo showed he’s pretty big. I’d like to see Charlo fight Crawford first and see how that goes. If he does good against Charlo with the weight, then let’s see him come up and fight Canelo, yes. But I want to see Crawford come up the weight classes and show he can be dominant at 154.”
It won’t be Charlo he’s facing, but Crawford is following the pattern Jones would like to see. He fights WBA Super-Welterweight Champion Israil Madrimov on August 3, providing a good measuring stick for how he’d fare a further two divisions up.
Should he win, ‘Bud’ will either continue to push for the Canelo fight next or look to unify the titles in that division. The Mexican is out in September against Edgar Berlanga, but will be holding only three of the four belts by then.
