Terence Crawford is ready to move up three weight divisions to face Canelo Alvarez on Cinco De Mayo in a blockbuster Pay Per View.
Crawford revealed his plans over the weekend and told fans a potential move up 21 pounds in weight does not deter him.
“Terence Crawford vs Canelo Alvarez is the biggest fight in boxing right now,” said Crawford. “Like it or not, they are just facts. I’m not scared. I most definitely believe in myself even if no one else does.”
Terence Crawford vs Canelo at 168
When asked about taking the fight at 168, Crawford replied: “Let’s do it!”
“Bud” has few options after a rematch with Errol Spence Jr. fell flat. Spence was beaten well by Crawford last summer before undergoing cataract surgery, which ruled him out for months.
Former promoter Bob Arum recently stated a fight between Crawford and Spence was dead in the water anyway.
Speaking to Fight Hub TV, Arum first responded to whether he regrets Crawford leaving Top Rank.
“No. Because Terence Crawford is a great talent, we always say that. He has proved throughout his career that he is a great talent,” said Arum.
“The question is, can you match up his economic demands with his actual marketability? We were not able to do that. We lost a lot of money promoting his fights. I wish him well, but I am not, or my company is not prepared to take those risks, even though when you look at his performances, they are brilliant.
“Again, Terence did well fighting Spence. They did very well economically. But if you ran it back and had Terence fighting Spence again, I don’t believe it would do anything like the numbers that the first fight did.
“People didn’t realize. You looked at Spence and his whole career, and the one thing that was glaring is that with all his great victories and all his fights, he had fought two nothing, southpaws. So that should have indicated to everybody that Spence didn’t like fighting southpaws. Crawford knew that, so they fought him southpaw.”
Catchweight
The Canelo fight is a solid option for the pound-for-pound star. However, many felt Crawford would have a warm-up fight at least at 154 or 160 to somewhat acclimatize to the Mexican superstar.
Canelo, at this stage in his career, is unlikely to budge too far from 168 – if Crawford does want to negotiate the scales. He may agree a couple of pounds to 166 or maybe even 165.
Crawford will want Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight title on the line for a May 4 super-fight. This gives the Omaha man the opportunity to become a three-weight four-belt king.
Cinco de Mayo will be on fire if the fight gets made, as many prefer that to Jaime Munguia or Jermall Charlo vs Canelo.
Phil Jay is an experienced boxing news writer and has been the Editor of World Boxing News since 2010.
