Terence Crawford continues to pursue a fight against Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
The pair are two of the best fighters in the sport, both four-weight world champions and bring all-action styles to the ring. The problem many see for Crawford, however, is that he would have to jump up a further two divisions to make the fight happen.
When previewing the potential fight, famed trainer and analyst Teddy Atlas said on his podcast that people would look to the American’s last performance against Israil Madrimov at super-welterweight as a measuring stick.
“Everyone’s gonna think that Crawford’s too small. He had trouble with Madrimov… I don’t think they know how good Madrimov was and I don’t know that Crawford knew how good he was, but Crawford won that fight anyway.”
Atlas believes Canelo must meet Crawford somewhere with the weight for the most competitive fight, despite the latter’s wish to move straight to super-middle.
“I don’t know what the catchweight is. There has to be a catchweight. I would hope that Canelo doesn’t force him to go all the way up to 168. If he goes up to 168, obviously that makes it even more difficult for Crawford.”
Having said that, the 68-year-old still backs ‘Bud.’
“I said it before, I don’t care if some people don’t like it. They think I’m too favourable towards Crawford. Canelo’s terrific, he is … He does pick his spots, you can’t get around that unless you’re one of those Canelo fan boys. If you want the truth, he picks his spots. He can, because he makes the money, he brings the pay-per-view. That doesn’t take away from him being really good.
Crawford, I think he’s special … I’ve been in the business 50 years, I think I know something about fighters being great … They’re both getting older. I don’t know how much Crawford can stay at that level. If he’s gonna do it he’s got to do it now. This will be a great challenge for him against a tremendous fighter. I’m not betting against Crawford. That’s the bottom line.”
Canelo has said he is open to negotiating with anyone at the beginning of next year. It’s understood that Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh will be making a fresh offer for the fight.
