Canelo Alvarez’s decision to begin talks with William Scull on January 10 for a potential fight in May puts Terence Crawford in an uncertain position.
Four-division world champion Crawford was hoping to be the next opponent for unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs), but it looks like he won’t get that mega-money fight.
Crawford’s options
Terence, 37, will now have to start thinking about fighting someone else to keep him busy while he waits. He hopes Canelo will give him a payday in September. I don’t know if that will happen then, but you can understand why Crawford believes it will happen.
If Crawford doesn’t retire, these would be his best options for equity and cash:
– Sebastian Fundora
-Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
– Tim Tszyu
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
Fundora will be busy with his scheduled title defense against Errol Spence and likely won’t be available until the second half of 2025. So, if Crawford wants to fight, he will have to sit on the shelf for an additional time.
He has already been out of action since his narrow win over Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. We’re probably looking at Crawford being out of the ring for about a year and a half if he chooses to wait for the Fundora match. It’s not the smartest thing Crawford can do, but if he’s not willing to risk being beaten by Murtazaliev, Bohachuk, Tszyu or Ennis, it’s understandable why he chooses to wait.
Most of these fights would require Turki Al-Shiekh to finance them for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to be willing to take on any of those guys. It’s not a PPV type for one of the promoters to be willing to give a massive guaranteed purse and hope the match sells out.
As we saw in the last event of Terence against Israil Madrimov, it is not a PPV attraction. That is why Turki should be involved so that Crawford can fight any dangerous fighters at 154, such as Murtazaliev or Bohachuk. Those would be tough fights for Crawford even when he was young, but now that he’s pushed 40, those fighters will be nightmares for him.
Undisputed at 154?
Yes Crawford was goodwill take on IBF 154-lb champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) in a unification match to put himself in position to face Fundora for the undisputed championship in the second half of 2025.
If Terence can capture the IBF belt, he can press Fundora to fight. Becoming the undisputed junior middleweight champion would raise Crawford’s stock in the boxing world, which could help him get the Canelo fight.
It would not always be that Bud would have the fight because, as we have seen before, Canelo cannot be pressured in fights. He could ignore Crawford for the rest of his career, like he did with David Benavidez, and not lose sleep over the criticism he receives from fans.
