The Ring extravaganza held this past weekend featured more than just award winners as boxing’s superstars attended the ceremony this past Saturday on June 11th including the “face of boxing” himself, Canelo Alvarez. Despite a public fallout between Canelo Alvarez and GEA chairman Turki Alalshikh, The Ring’s current owner, things appear to have been smoothed out and a potential fight between Alvarez and Terence Crawford might be on the cards this year.
Mexican unified super middleweight (168 lbs) champion Canelo Alvarez (62-2-2, 39 KO’s) has clearly stated his lack of interest in fighting Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KO’s) last year, citing Crawford’s size as the fundamental reason on why he would not want to fight him. Alvarez’ assertions are not rooted in fantasy given former undisputed super welterweight (154 lbs) champion Jermell Charlo had stepped up to super middleweight to face Alvarez for all his titles yet vividly failed to produce a noteworthy performance.
With there being weight classes for a reason, there is every chance of Crawford stumbling against Canelo Alvarez in similar fashion as Jermell Charlo, but Crawford’s pedigree as a fighter and current position as a top 3 pound-for-pound (P4P) fighter does make for a more intriguing―and likely more evenly-sided―match-up.
Last year, it appeared that a potential Alvarez vs. Crawford fight was definitively off the cards after Turki Alalshikh publicly accused Alvarez of being afraid to fight Crawford, despite having all the advantages when it came to size―having competed at 168 lbs for several years as opposed to Crawford who just made his 154 lbs debut last year.
Following this past weekend’s award ceremony by The Ring Boxing Magazine, however―which was attended by Turki Alalshikh, Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, a subtle shift has occurred in the possibility of the Alvarez-Crawford fight after the Mexican champion confirmed interest in engaging in a fight with Crawford:
“We’ll see. It’s [always] a possibility. We’ll see what happens,” Alvarez stated after being asked on whether a fight with Crawford could occur this year. “[Me and Turki Alalshikh] know each other. We [didn’t] talk that much about a mega-deal or anything, but we now know each other and we’ll see what happens.“
Alvarez’ words are a virtual 180-degree turn from his prior-shown dismissiveness in a Crawford fight, and though talks have seemingly not yet commenced, whatever conflict had been brewing between him and Turki Alalshikh seems to have been resolved. This can increase the possibility of a Alvarez-Crawford fight which would arguably be one of the biggest fights in 2025 if staged this year given the name recognition and accolades of both fighters.
Canelo Alvarez is coming off a September win against Puerto Rican contender Edgar Berlanga (22-1, 17 KO’s) and is expected to fight twice this year; during the Cinco de Mayo weekend set to be held this year in May and the Mexican Independence Day weekend which is set to occur in September. Given recent circumstances, the likelihood of Crawford becoming one of Alvarez’ opponents in either May or Steptember has now increased and could potentially see the fight occur on a Riyadh Season card.
