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Former multi-division world champion Mikey Garcia says he’s not a fan of Terence Crawford moving up two divisions to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his three super middleweight belts.
Mikey feels it is 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 look to unify against other champions.
He believes he probably won’t because he doesn’t have the 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 in, but not a big one because of the size mismatch.
Mikey Doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and was uncomfortable eating his right hands.
“Canelo is fighting at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154, and he struggled in that fight,” said Mikey Garcia Fight Hub TVexpressing his disapproval of Terence Crawford’s fight against three-belt unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Now, where do you 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. In terms of skills, I think Crawford is the 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 accomplish.
“From 140 to 147, and now 154. It’s even great for him.” If he wants to do something. Collect the belts at 154. He can try, but there’s no money in it compared to the Canelo fight. “Canelo is trying to fight other guys,” Garcia said.
Crawford’s Paidai
Crawford obviously wants the fight against Canelo for the money, and that’s the only reason. If it was about legacy, Crawford would move up to 160 first to fight the champion in that weight class, but that doesn’t work because neither of them are stars.
No money for Crawford. He wants it, and a fight against Canelo will get him that payoff. He has Turki Al-Sheikh to thank for that because he is the one who makes it possible. If it wasn’t for him, Canelo wouldn’t have bothered to fight Crawford.
“At that point, it’s more of a big money fight that it’s going to generate,” Mikey said of the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of that camaraderie. I’d rather see Canelo fight Beterbiev or Buffalo again. If he wanted to challenge himself, go back to 175 and challenge those guys. He’s not a smaller guy moving forward (Crawford).”
Canelo is unlikely to move up to tp 175 again unless Dmitry Bivol can win the undisputed light heavyweight championship in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd. If Bivol wins that fight, Canelo could be interested in moving up in weight for the rematch as it would allow him to try to become the undisputed two-division champion.
Also, the money Canelo would get for that fight would be huge. There would be less backlash for Alvarez if he loses to Buffalo again, as he is moving up in weight against a bigger guy. With Bivol being a finesse fighter, Canelo has less to worry about fighting him than if Beterbiev wins on February 22nd.
Stay on 154
“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t have to move to fight Canelo. “He can only 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, as it’s a fight where he wouldn’t have to worry so much about getting knocked out. If Crawford were to challenge IBF champion Bahram Murtazali or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr., he could be stopped.
Those guys are younger and more powerful than him. They would like to add the scalp of the soon-to-be 38-year-old Crawford to their collection. That would be a nice trophy.
