Former multi-division world champion Mikey Garcia says he’s not a fan of Terence Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his three super middleweight belts.
Mikey feels it’s too much for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight the heavier and stronger Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after moving to 154 last August in his latest move had problems against Israil Madrimov. He believes Crawford should stay at 154 and try to unify against the other champions.
He believes he probably won’t because there’s no money in fighting the other junior middleweight belt holders compared to what he can get fighting Canelo. Mikey says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “great fight” because of the “money” it will bring in, but not a great fight because of the size difference.
Mikey doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and was uncomfortable taking his right hand away.
“Canelo fights at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154 and had some issues in that fight,” Mikey Garcia said Fight Hub TVto express his disapproval of Terence Crawford fighting unified three-belt super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Where do you want to go? At 164, 165 or 166? Canelos won’t go down to 160. He will drop to 166 if he agrees.
“I think Canelo wins this fight based on his strength and size alone. Skill-wise, I think Crawford is a better trained fighter, but the difference in size will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of this fight. I think Crawford accomplished everything he needed to accomplish.
“From 140 to 147 and now 154. That’s actually great for him. If he wants to do something. Collect belts at 154. He can try that, but compared to the Canelo fight, that’s no money. Canelo is trying to fight other guys,” Garcia said.
Crawford’s payday
Crawford obviously wants the fight against Canelo for the money, and that’s the only reason. If it were about legacy, Crawford would initially move up to 160 to fight the champions of that weight class, but he doesn’t because none of them are stars.
Crawford can’t get any money. He wants this, and fighting Canelo will give him that payday. He has to thank Turki Al-Sheikh for that because he is the one who makes it possible. Without him, Canelo wouldn’t bother fighting Crawford.
“At this point it’s more of a big fight for the money it’s going to generate,” Mikey said of the Canelo-Crawford matchup. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of this matchmaking. I would rather see Canelo step up and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wanted to challenge himself, go back up to 175 and challenge these guys. Not a smaller guy stepping up (Crawford).”
Canelo is unlikely to move back up to the 175 mark unless Dmitry Bivol can secure the undisputed light heavyweight championship in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd. If Bivol wins this fight, Canelo may be interested in moving up in weight for a rematch as he could attempt to become undisputed two-division champion.
Plus, the money Canelo would get for this fight would be huge. There would be less backlash for Alvarez if he loses to Bivol again because he is making weight against a bigger player. Since Bivol is a finesse-level fighter, Canelo has less to worry about fighting him than if Beterbiev wins on February 22nd.
Stay at 154
“The same goes for Crawford. He doesn’t need to step up to fight Canelo. At 154 he can just compete against guys,” Mikey said.
Crawford would probably only be interested in fighting for his belts at 154 against WBC and WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora because it’s a fight where he wouldn’t have to worry as much about getting knocked out. If Crawford were to challenge IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr., he could be stopped.
These 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.
