Former multi-division world champion Mike Garcia says he is not a fan of Terence Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his three super middleweight belts.
Mike thinks it’s too much for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight the heavy and powerful Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after he struggled in his last outing at 154 against Israel Madrimov last August. He thinks Crawford should stay at 154 and look to meet other champions.
He believes that he probably won’t do that because there is no money to fight other junior middleweight belt holders compared to what he might get fighting Canelo. Mike says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “big fight” because of the “money” it will bring, but not because of the size difference.
Mike doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and wasn’t comfortable eating right hands from him.
“Canelo fights at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154, and he had a problem in that fight,” said Mike Garcia on Fight Hub TV, expressing his disapproval of Terence Crawford fighting three-time super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Now, where do you plan to go? At 164, 165 or 166? Canelos won’t get down to 160. He will drop to 166 if he agrees.
“I think Canelo wins that fight based on strength and size. Skill wise, I think Crawford is the better skilled fighter, but the difference in size will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of that fight. I think Crawford accomplished everything he was supposed to accomplish.
“From 140 to 147, and now 154. That’s pretty good for him. If he wants to do something. Collect belts at 154. He can try that, but there’s no money in that compared to the Canelo fight. “Canelo is trying to fight other guys,” said Garcia.
Crawford’s Payday
Crawford obviously wants the fight against Canelo for money, and that’s the only reason. If it was about legacy, Crawford would first move up to 160 to fight a champion at that weight, but he doesn’t because there are no superstars.
There is no money for Crawford to receive. He wants that, and a fight with Canelo will give him that payday. He should thank Turki Al-Sheikh for that because he made it happen. If it wasn’t for him, Canelo wouldn’t have bothered fighting Crawford.
“At that point, it’s a very big fight for the money we’re going to make,” said Mikey about the Canelo vs. Crawford clash. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of that match fixing. I’d rather see Canelo step up and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wants to challenge himself, go up to 175 again and challenge those guys. Not the little guy going up [Crawford].”
It is possible that Canelo will not move up to tp 175 unless Dmitry Bivol can defeat the undisputed light heavyweight champion in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22. If Bivol wins that fight, Canelo would be interested in moving up in weight because it would allow him to try being the undisputed two-division champion.
Also, the money Canelo would get from that fight would be huge. There will be no backing down for Alvarez if he loses to Bivol again because he is moving up in weight against the big guy. Since Bivol is a top-level champion, Canelo has less to worry about fighting him than when Beterbiev won on February 22nd.
Stay at 154
“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t need to move up to fight Canelo. He can just fight guys at 154,” said Mike.
Crawford will probably want to fight WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora for his 154 belt because it’s a fight where he won’t be too worried about being knocked out. If Crawford were to challenge IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr, he could be stopped.
Those guys are smaller and stronger than him. They will be looking to add 38-year-old Crawford’s scalp to their collection. That would be a nice trophy.
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