Boxing power-broker Turki Alalshikh is applying public pressure on Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, whom he hopes commits to a fight deal with Riyadh Season regarding a mega-match against Terence Crawford.
Alalshikh, was ringside for Crawford’s win Saturday over Israil Madrimov. Though Crawford led much of the way on the scorecards, and earned a unanimous decision, he labored to the win and looked far from ready for a leaping jump over the middleweight division to fight Canelo at super middleweight.
An hour before Crawford walked to the ring for the Madrimov bout, Alalshikh even sent a verbal message to Canelo — which was broadcast on DAZN PPV, PPV.com, ESPN+, and Prime Video.
READ: Watch Highlights: Terence Crawford defeats Israil Madrimov, wins world title in fourth division
Alalshikh had a simple, five-word message for one of the top three pound-for-pound fighters by consensus, midway through the Crawford vs Madrimov event in Los Angeles.
“If he’s smart, he’ll accept!”
But as the night wore on, it quickly became apparent that if Crawford is the one who is smart, then he’ll renege on any agreement he’s already had, and stay at super welterweight to fight the top guys there — ones he can beat — rather than try to bait Canelo into a super middleweight bout that he could handily lose.
Crawford even has plentiful options in his own weight class.
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Whether Canelo accepts or not remains to be seen. However, GIVEMESPORT understands that Riyadh Season has been courting the Mexican boxer for quite some time and, to date, he has continually rebuffed their efforts to make Canelo vs David Benavidez, and Canelo vs Crawford.
Instead, Canelo fought Jaime Munguia in May and is now due to box Berlanga in September.
It is not yet clear when Crawford will return but his future does not depend entirely, or even partly, on the plans and actions of one of the sport’s most popular fighters.
Instead, Crawford could turn to one of three opponents:
- Tim Tszyu — Former WBO super welterweight world champion
- Vergil Ortiz — Challenges for WBC interim super welterweight world title on Saturday
- Sebastian Fundora — WBO and WBC unified super welterweight world champion
Ortiz fights Serhii Bohachuk on Saturday and will hope to advance his perfect pro record of 21 wins (21 KOS) to 22 wins (22 KOs).
The Ortiz vs Bohachuk fight tops a Golden Boy Promotions card at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Cecilia Braekhus fights Maricela Cornejo, and Gabriel Fundora takes on Daniela Asenjo in an IBF flyweight world title fight.
