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Tim Bradley tuned into his box this week to put pressure on Canelo Alvarez to give Terence Crawford the fight he’s been asking for against him.
It’s a fight Crawford, 37, desperately wants, but has eluded him because of his unwillingness to earn it through the hard work of beating top seeds at 168 and 175.
Golden parachute
Bradley urges unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) not to “run away” from the fight against Crawford. This fight does nothing for Canelo. It is seen as a vehicle for Crawford to take a golden parachute to give him a soft landing into retirement and allow him to comfortably live out his golden years in a giant mansion in Beverly Hills.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) looked awful in his last fight against 154-pound champion Israil Madrimov on Aug. 3 and showed he has reached the limit of how far he can go in moving up the divisions. Terence was eating right hands from Madrimov all night and looked like an old man in that fight. Why would Canelo want to fight Crawford after that performance?
“Canelo, don’t run away from this. You already ran away from the fight with Benavides,” said Tim Bradley on his YouTube channel, talking about wanting Canelo Alvarez to fight Terence Crawford. “You don’t care what people have to say about you anyway about the fact that you didn’t fight.”
“You walk around Mexico and you obviously don’t care what people think about you so you don’t take that fight. Fight Crawford. It’s a fight everyone wants to see you fight, and it’s going to give Crawford a chance to show you and show the world his greatness,” Bradley continued.
“Everybody talks about the weight. ‘Oh, he’s going to knock him out.’ When was the last time Canelo knocked someone out? You can all give up on that, ‘He’s going to knock out Crawford.’ Canelo is the same height as Crawford (5’8″). Canelo started at 147 pounds. He is not a natural 168 kilograms,” Bradley said.
Canelo is much bigger, stronger and more talented than Crawford. Fans saw the 37-year-old Terrence narrowly defeat Israil Madrimov in his debut at 154 last August, and quite rightly feel the Nebraska native is too small and old to move up 14 pounds to 168 to challenge Canelo for his unification titles. . .
Proving Ground
If Crawford was willing to prove himself by moving up to 168 and running the gauntlet David Benavidez, David Morrell, Artur Beterbiev and Christian Mbili, the fans wouldn’t mind if this fight happened. But since Crawford doesn’t want to do that, he doesn’t rate the fight against King Canelo. They ignore him like the other underdogs who beg Alvarez to give them the fight they don’t deserve.
To meet the king, you have to do something big. It’s always been like that. Crawford tries to skip that part and just begs for a fight or for others to try to pressure Canelo on his behalf.
“We just saw a fighter (Olexandr Usyk) who was 50 lbs lighter than the other guy (Tyson Fury) he faced, and he beat him. He beat him with his skill, ability, heart and determination. Usik is a great fighter. You know who else is great Crawford,” Bradley said.
The difference is that the 36-year-old Tyson Fury is completely washed out in a clinical sense, always overrated and produced, thanks to the careful connection of his promoters.
Canelo isn’t the toughest job and has real talent to go along with his power and size. More importantly, he’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 put Crawford up against killers in the 154lb division, which includes many he has yet to fight. Bakhram Muratazaliev is waiting for Crawford, and if he wants to cement his legacy, he has to fight him.
