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 more powerful Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after struggling in his last bout to 154 against Israil Madrimov last August. He believes Crawford should stay at 154 and look to unify against the other champions.
He believes he probably won’t because there is no money to fight the other junior middleweight belt holders compared to what he can get in the Canelo fight. Mikey says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “big fight” because of the “money” it will bring in, but not a great fight because of the size mismatch.
Mikey doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and was uncomfortable eating straight hands from him.
“Canelo fights at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154 and he had some issues in that fight,” Mikey Garcia told Fight Hub TV, expressing disapproval of Terence Crawford fighting triple-belt unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Well, where are you going to go? To 164, 165 or 166? Canelos won’t get down to 160. He’ll get down to 166 if he accepts.
“I think Canelo wins that fight just based on power and size. Skill-wise, I think Crawford is a better skilled fighter, but the difference in size will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of that match. I think Crawford has accomplished everything he set out to accomplish.
“From 140 to 147, and now 154. It’s even amazing for him. If he wants to do something. Collect 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 payday
Crawford obviously wants the Canelo fight for the money, and that’s the only reason. If it was about legacy, Crawford would first move up to 160 to fight the champions in that weight class, but he won’t because neither of them are stars.
There is no money for Crawford to get. He will, and the fight against Canelo will give him that payday. He has Turki Al-Sheikh to thank for that because he is the one who makes it possible. If not for him, Canelo wouldn’t bother fighting Crawford.
“At that point, it’s more of a big fight for the money it’s going to generate,” Mikey said of Canelo vs. Crawford clashed. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of that match-making. I’d rather see Canelo move up and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wanted to challenge himself, move up to 175 again and challenge those guys. No less guy moves up [Crawford].”
Canelo is unlikely to move up to tp 175 again unless Dmitry Bivol can capture the undisputed light heavyweight championship in his February 22 rematch with Artur Beterbiev. If Bivol wins that fight, Canelo could be interested in moving up in weight for a rematch because it would allow him to try to become an undisputed two-division champion.
Also, the money Canelo would get for that fight would be huge. There would be less of a backlash for Alvarez if he loses to Bivol again because he’s moving up in weight against a bigger guy. Since Bivol is a finesse level fighter, there is less for Canelo to worry about fighting him than if Beterbiev wins on February 22nd.
Stay at 154
“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t have to move up to fight Canelo. He can just 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 because it’s a fight where he doesn’t have to worry as much 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 younger and more powerful than him. They want to add the soon-to-be 38-year-old Crawford’s scalp to their collection. That would be a nice trophy.
