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 believes it is too much for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight the heavier and stronger Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after he struggled in his recent move to 154 against Israil Madrimov in last August. He believes Crawford should stay at 154 and look to unify against the other champions.
He believes he probably won’t do that because there isn’t the money to fight the other belt holders in the lower middleweights compared to what he can get with Canelo. Mikey says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “big fight” because of the “money” it will bring in, but not a big one because of the size mismatch.
Mikey doubts Crawford
Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrymov and was uncomfortable eating right hands from him.
“Canelo fights at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154 and he had some trouble in this fight,” Mikey Garcia told Fight Hub TVdisapproving of Terence Crawford fighting triple-belt unified super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Now, where do you plan to go? At 164, 165 or 166? Kanelos is not going to go down to 160. He will go down to 166 if he accepts.
“I think Canelo wins this fight just based on power and size. Skill-wise, I think Crawford is a more capable fighter, but the size difference will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of this fight. I think Crawford has accomplished everything he needed to accomplish.
“From 140 to 147, and now to 154. That’s still great for him. If he wants to do something. Pick up 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 move up to 160 first to fight the champions in that weight class, but he doesn’t because none of them are stars.
There is no money for Crawford to take. He wants that and the fight with Canelo will get him that payday. He has Turki Al-Sheikh to thank for this because he is the one who makes it possible. If not for him, Canelo wouldn’t be bothering to fight Crawford.
“At that point, it’s more of a big fight for the money it’s going to make,” Mikey said of the Canelo vs. Crawford fight. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of this fight. I’d rather see Canelo step up and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wanted to challenge himself, go up to 175 again and challenge these guys. Not a smaller guy coming up (Crawford).”
Canelo likely won’t move up to 175 again unless Dmitry Bivol can capture the undisputed lightweight championship in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22nd. If Bivol wins this 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 this fight would be huge. There will be less 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 fighter, Canelo may be less worried about fighting him than if Beterbiev wins on February 22nd.
Stay at 154
“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t need to step up to fight Canelo. He can just wrestle 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 wouldn’t have to worry so 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 stronger than him. They would like to add the 38-year-old Crawford’s fur to their collection soon. That would be a nice trophy.
