Tim Bradley took to his soapbox this week to pressure Canelo Alvarez to give Terence Crawford the fight he’s been asking for against him. It’s the fight Crawford, 37, desperately wants, but has remained elusive to him.
Golden Parachute
Bradley urges unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) not to “run away” from a fight against Crawford. This fight does nothing for Canelo. It is seen as a vehicle for Crawford to get the golden parachute to give him a soft landing in retirement and allow him to live comfortably in his golden years in a giant mansion in Beverly Hills.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) looked horrible in his last fight against 154lb champion Israil Madrimov on August 3 and showed that he has reached the limit of how far he can go to move up the divisions. Terence was eating right hands all night from Madrimov and he looked like an old man in that fight. Why might Canelo want to fight Crawford after that performance?
“Canelo, don’t run away from this. You already ran away from the Benavidez fight,” said Tim Bradley on his YouTube channel, talking about his desire for Canelo Alvarez to fight Terence Crawford. “You don’t care what people have to say about you anyway, the fact that you didn’t take the fight.
“You walk through Mexico and obviously you don’t care what people think of you so you don’t take that fight. You take the fight with Crawford. It’s a fight that everybody wants to see you take, and it’s going to give Crawford a chance to show you and show the world his greatness,” Bradley continued.
“Everybody’s talking about the weight. ‘Oh, he’s going to throw it.’ ‘8’). Canelo started at 147 pounds. He’s not a natural 168-pounder,” Bradley said.
Canelo is much bigger, stronger and more talented than Crawford. Fans saw how the 37-year-old Terence barely beat Israil Madrimov in his debut at 154 last August, and they clearly see that the Nebraska native is too small and old to move up 14 lbs to 168 to challenge Canelo for their unified titles. .
Proving ground
If Crawford was willing to try moving up to 168 and passing the gauntlet David Benavidez, David Morrell, Artur Beterbiev and Christian Mbilli, The fans will not be opposed to this fight happening. But since Crawford isn’t willing to do that, he didn’t rate a fight against King Canelo. He is ignored like other needy fighters begging Alvarez to give him a fight without merit.
To meet the King, you must do something great. It has always been that way. Crawford is trying to skip that part and just beg for the fight or have others try to pressure Canelo on his behalf.
“We just saw a fighter (Oleksandr Usyk) who was 50 lbs lighter than the other guy (Tyson Fury) that he faced, and he beat him. He beat him with his skill, ability, heart and determination. Usyk is a great fighter. You know who else is great is Crawford,” said Bradley.
The difference is that the 36-year-old Tyson Fury is completely washed up in the clinical sense, always overrated, and manufactured, thanks to the careful matchmaking done by his promoters.
Canelo is not a hype job and has real talent to go with his power and size. More importantly, it’s a proven PPV draw. Crawford is not a PPV draw and never will be. This fight is just to help Crawford financially and make his fans, like Bradley, happy.
This fight does nothing for Canelo. If Bradley really cared, he would position Crawford to take on the killers in the 154 lb division, which includes many he still needs to fight. Bakhram Muratazaliev is waiting for Crawford, and if he wants to cement his legacy, he needs to fight.
