Former multi-division world champion Mikey Garcia says he’s not a fan of Terence Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his three super middleweight belts.
Mikey feels it’s too much for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight the heavier and more powerful Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after struggling in his recent move to 154 against Israil Madrimov last August. He thinks Crawford should stay at 154 and try to unify against the other champions.
I believe he probably won’t do that because there is no money to fight other junior middleweight belt holders compared to what he can get fighting Canelo. Mikey says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “big fight” because of the “money” it will bring, but not a big one because of the size discrepancy.
Mikey doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and was uncomfortable eating right hands from him.
“Canelo fights at 168. Crawford is right at 154, and he had some problems in that fight,” Mikey Garcia told Fight Hub TVwho express disapproval of Terence Crawford fighting three-belt unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Now, where does he plan to go? At 164, 165 or 166? Canelos will not go down to 160. He will go down to 166 if he accepts.
“I think Canelo wins that fight just based on power and size. Skill-wise, I think Crawford is a better skilled fighter, but the size difference will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of that fight. I think Crawford accomplished everything he had to do.
“From 140 to 147, and now 154. It’s still big for him. If he wants to do something. Collect belts at 154. He can try that, but there is no money in that compared to the Canelo fight. Canelo is trying to fight other guys,” Garcia said.
Crawford’s payday
Crawford obviously wants the fight against Canelo for the money, and that’s the only reason. If it was about legacy, Crawford would first move up to 160 to fight champions in that weight class, but he doesn’t do that because no one is a star.
There is no money for Crawford to get. He wants that, and the Canelo fight will give him that payday. You have to thank Turki Al-Sheikh for that because he is the one who makes it possible. If it wasn’t for him, Canelo wouldn’t commit to fighting Crawford.
“At that point, it’s more of a big fight for the money it’s going to generate,” Mikey said of the Canelo vs. Crawford bout. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of that match-making. I’d rather see Canelo move on and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wanted to challenge himself, move up to 175 again and challenge those guys. It’s not a smaller guy moving (Crawford).
Canelo will likely not advance to tp 175 unless Dmitry Bivol can capture the undisputed lightweight championship in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd. If Bivol wins that fight, Canelo might be interested in moving up in weight for a rematch because it will allow him to try to become an undisputed two-division champion.
Also, the money Canelo would get for that fight would be huge. There would be less of a backlash for Alvarez if he loses to Bivol again because he’s moving up in weight against a bigger guy. Since Bivol is a finesse fighter, there is less for Canelo to worry about fighting him than if Beterbiev is victorious on February 22nd.
Stay at 154
“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t need to move to fight Canelo. He can just fight guys at 154,” Mikey said.
Crawford would probably only be interested in fighting WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora for his belts at 154, because that’s a fight where he wouldn’t have to worry so much about getting knocked out. If Crawford challenged IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr, he could be arrested.
Those boys are younger and more powerful than him. They would be looking to add the 38-year-old Crawford’s scalp to their collection. That would be a nice trophy.
