Terence Crawford needs to start thinking about a plan B opponent because his primary target, Canelo Alvarez, is showing zero interest in facing him.
Crawford will need to retire or move on because the Canelo fight is not happening for him, and that much is clear. The way Crawford keeps pushing him is hurting him in the eyes of the fans. It’s like Crawford just doesn’t get it.
By now, Crawford should have already realized that a fight with Canelo will never happen in this lifetime. The way Crawford doesn’t give up is pathetic.
Most agree that Crawford’s approach to trying to fight against superstar Canelo was wrong. The Nebraska native focused on jumping the queue by jumping ahead of the contenders at 168 and asking Canelo to just give the fight a no-win.
He assumed that Canelo would be ready to give him the blow without deserving it. This did not work out well for Crawford, but he is also not interested in moving up to 168 to improve his chances. Crawford’s lack of ambition to fight Canelo is worrying.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) has been making the rounds with the media, trying to talk his way into a fight against unified super middleweight champion Canelo for the past year.
That approach failed for Crawford, and now he must decide whether to retire or continue his career by fighting other fighters. Crawford has several excellent options for good paydays.
If His Excellency Turki Alalshikh is interested in financing Crawford’s next fight, regardless of his opponent, he can make good money fighting many famous fighters.
If Crawford persists with his goal of fighting Canelo, he needs to put himself in a position to put pressure on the Mexican star by moving up to 168 and defeating two or three big names:
168 options:
– David Benavidez
– Christian Mbilli
– David Morrell
Fighting Benavidez would be the ideal opponent that Crawford should fight if he is interested in getting the pension payment against Canelo Alvarez. It would pay well for the 37-year-old Crawford to fight Benavidez well, as it would be a matchup that would bring in big numbers on Prime Video PPV.
If Crawford was victorious against “The Mexican Monster” Benavidez, Canelo would be forced to fight because of the pressure. It would be risky for Crawford to fight Benavidez because he might get knocked out, and his dream of fighting Canelo would be over for good.
Given Crawford’s last performance against Israil Madrimov at 154, it’s pretty obvious that he would have no chance of beating any of the top five at 168. Even a lesser fighter like Edgar Berlanga would be too much for Crawford.
Crawford should focus on the fights he can potentially win at 147 and 154, which still pay well. They wouldn’t give Crawford the massive retirement payout that a fight against Canelo would, but he’d still do pretty well.
Plan B options for Crawford:
-Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis
– Vergil Ortiz Jr.
– Sebastian Fundora
– Tim Tszyu
– Serhii Bohachuk
– Israel Madrimov
