Coach Robert Garcia says Canelo Alvarez will face Terence Crawford in May 2025. However, he doesn’t think Crawford will win because he’s getting older and Canelo is naturally stronger than him.
He also takes good hits and has been hit by harder punchers than Crawford, who looked weak in his debut at 154 against Israil Madrimov on August 3.
Crawford’s age and decline
Robert says Crawford won’t back down from fighting WBC interim 154-pound champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. He just feels that the 37-year-old Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) is aging and wants to make as much money as possible before he retires soon.
Garcia says Crawford could make three times more money fighting Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) than he did against Vergil Jr. If Turki Alalshikh was willing to pay Canelo a huge amount of money to fight the older, thinner and To fight weaker Crawford, the fight can take place.
Given that Terence would be making his debut at 168 and moving up two weight classes, it would be impossible to imagine a scenario in which he could win. It would be a battle at the corporate level.
A celebrity match
When you move a fighter as old as Crawford, who didn’t look good in his debut at 154, up two weight classes to 168, it’s not a serious fight. It’s a celebrity match.
To get serious, Crawford would have to hit 168 and prove himself against the top contenders. If he has success in three or four tough fights, he could face Canelo.
Terence’s path to legitimacy
Put Crawford with these three so he can show he’s worthy of fighting King Canelo:
- David Benavidez
- David Morrell
- Osley Iglesias
He’s not interested in even proving himself in a fight at 168; That just shows what he’s up to. It’s the money and NOT the inheritance. This is a joke. This has nothing to do with Crawford’s goal.
If this were the reality, Crawford would have to move up to 168 and gain the experience needed to prove he is fit and deserving of the position.
Terence doesn’t have to do that here, and the ones who will lose are the fans because he gets wiped out by Canelo or gets very, very boring like Jermell Charlo did when he moved up from 154 to challenge Canelo in 2023. Jermell is bigger, faster and stronger than Crawford.
He couldn’t do anything with Canelo and had to run to save his skin. The fight was unwatchable, but Charlo got his big reward and hasn’t been seen in the ring since. For him, it was a payoff, and fans got a poor product for the money they paid to see the fight on PPV.
Financial motivations
“We would take up the fight immediately. It’s not an easy fight. “Crawford is a great fighter, pound for pound No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3,” Robert Garcia said Fight hype when asked about his interest in a fight between Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Terence Crawford.
“He’s already 37 and looking for the biggest payday. “I think he’s planning a fight against Canelo that would triple the money he could make against Vergil,” Robert said of Crawford. “So he just plays it smart. I don’t blame him. He’s already 37 and, financially speaking, is looking at the best fights there are for him.
“What I’m hearing is it (Canelo-Crawford) could happen by May. I think Crawford is one of the best fighters out there, but age-wise he’s at the top. We won’t know until he fights again. There is this chance. That’s what happens in boxing,” Garcia said of fighters aging overnight, especially as they approach their late 30s, like Crawford.
Terence is aging and is almost 38 years old. He looked terrible in his last fight against Madrimov at 154, and he would likely be destroyed in a rematch or if he took on IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Muratazaliev. This guy now fights at a higher level than Canelo and has more power. What he would do to Crawford with his left hooks wouldn’t be pretty.
“I choose Canelo. He’s bigger, stronger (and younger than Crawford). Canelo can take a really good punch. I see Crawford putting up a good fight. Cnaleo is physically the bigger guy, stronger,” Garcia said.
