- Terence Crawford has been calling out Canelo Álvarez for a big-money boxing match for months now.
- Crawford defeated Israil Madrimov to remain undefeated and become a four-division champion.
- However, Saudi Arabian promoter Turki Al-Sheikh is no longer interested in a Canelo-Crawford bout, seemingly due to a dispute between Al-Sheikh and Alvarez.
The sports world loves a big boxing fight. While there isn’t a major clamoring for boxing like there was in the past, when there is a massive match, the action at boxing betting sites increases and more people buy the pay-per-view events.
One of the biggest fights that could be made right now is between Canelo Álvarez and Terence Crawford. The fight was targeted in the past by Turki Al-Sheikh, who is chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority and has claimed to want to “fix boxing”.
However, a Yahoo Sports report claims that Al-Sheikh is no longer looking to book Canelo-Crawford, and there appears to be a power tug-of-war between the head of Riyadh Season and Alvarez, arguably the biggest star in boxing.
Canelo “Doesn’t Like the Way He Talks”, Al-Sheikh Responds
Alvarez is currently promoting his September 14 fight against Edgar Berlanga, in which Alvarez looks to defend his WBA, WBC and WBO belts at super middleweight (168 pounds). But he was asked a question about Al-Sheikh on August 6, while doing press for the bout.
Al-Sheikh responded early on August 7:
In another tweet, Al-Sheikh revealed:
“Just wrapped up an important meeting now with my team, planning for the upcoming fights that we will make for 2024-2025.
I decided to disregard the Canelo fight, as I don’t want it anymore. Instead, I will be focusing [on] the US market with bigger fights, especially for the legend, Crawford."
To his credit, Crawford is doing his best to keep the fight alive. He moved to 41-0 and won a tough unanimous decision over Madrimov on August 3 in a Riyadh Season card in Los Angeles. Crawford won the interim WBA and WBO super-welterweight (154 pounds) titles. “Bud” was also the undisputed welterweight champion, although he had to give up the IBF belt, so he wouldn’t hold up the division.
It should also be noted that Crawford headlined the first Riyadh Season card outside of Saudi Arabia. Earlier this year, Al-Shiekh claimed that he basically wanted to create a boxing super league. PIF, which is Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has tried to buy all the major promotions and put them under one umbrella. This is also a part of Saudi Arabia’s plan to diversify their economy, which is extremely dependent on their oil supply.
Will Canelo-Crawford Ever Happen?
However, Alvarez could be the only boxer that will never fight under the Riyadh Season banner. The fight with Berlanger is being promoted by Canelo Promotions and shown on DAZN, a longtime partner of Alvarez’s.
It is definitely not a coincidence that UFC 306 is being rebranded as Riyadh Season Noche UFC, and takes place at the Sphere in Las Vegas. It’s also on the same night as the Canelo-Berlanger fight, and this is also Mexican Independence weekend. Alvarez is one of the most popular Mexican boxers of all time.
There are also logistic difficulties to making this fight happen. Crawford has moved up to 154 pounds and didn’t look spectacular against Madrimov, who is an excellent fighter. It definitely wasn’t Crawford’s destruction of Errol Spence Jr. in July 2023. Crawford would have to move up another two divisions to 168 pounds, or persuade Alvarez to meet him in the middle at 160 pounds.
Alvarez hasn’t fought at middleweight (160 pounds) since beating Daniel Jacobs in May 2019. The older fighters get, the more likely they are to move down in weight.
But ultimately, Alvarez wants to call the shots, and so does Al-Sheikh. This battle isn’t over yet, but boxing fans would love to see this fight happen.
