Terence Crawford Not Interested in Jaron Ennis, Vergil Ortiz; Fixated on Canelo Fight, Only?

Terence Crawford is, arguably, the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world. His skills and ability are without question. His first-ballot Hall of Fame status is also undeniable as a 4-division world champion and a 2-division unified, 4-belt world champ.

He also seems to be a tad delusional.

OK, maybe “delusional” is a rough word. How about “in possession of a hyper-inflated sense of self-worth?”

The latest evidence to support this assessment was provided by Crawford fan and bank roller, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority

Speaking to UK reporter Charlie Parsons on a live Twitter/X Q&A, the Saudi power broker was asked about Crawford’s future plans. He was also asked, specifically, about the possibility of a bout between Crawford and current IBF welterweight titlist Jaron “Boots” Ennis.

“Great fight, but not the top fight we want to see,” Alalshikh responded. “I don’t think Crawford will fight anyone except Canelo…This is what I feel…We give him offer for (Vergil) Ortiz. I don’t know if he will take it or not, but we have an agreement to do big fight for Ortiz if Crawford doesn’t take the fight.”

The Realities of Terence Crawford

Crawford, who will turn 37 next month, made his debut at 154 lbs. on August 3, beating Israil Madrimov for Madrimov’s WBA junior middleweight title and the vacant interim WBO 154 lb. belt. It was a solid, but not dominant, performance that left many observers with the impression that the Omaha, Nebraska native was a bit flat at his new weight.

The event, itself, turned out to be a financial flop, with the promotion having to give away thousands of tickets at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles and pay-per-view numbers estimated to be in the 75K to 100K range.

Yet, according to Alalshikh, Crawford remains fixated on the biggest, most consistently bankable target in the boxing world, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

A Canelo fight brings big bucks and Crawford will make considerably more money as the B-side to the Mexican superstar than he would make as the A-side versus anyone else.

But this is where the “delusion” may come in.

The Wrong End of Risk vs. Reward

What, exactly, would he bring to Canelo’s table, other than the long shot chance of embarrassing him royally?

Whether the assessment is fair or not, Crawford’s performance against Madrimov made people question whether he belonged at 154. It’ll be increasingly difficult to make the case that he could go all the way up to 168– against one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world– and be a viable challenger.

As Alvarez has expressed before, he’d have everything to lose and nothing to gain from fighting a beefed up welterweight.

Alvarez wouldn’t even gain much from a monetary perspective, at least not in comparison to what he can make fighting anyone else, anyway. It’s pretty much established at this point that Crawford just isn’t a next-level draw and, realistically, his name may not bring in any more revenue than someone like Chris Eubank Jr., who’s thought to be the front runner for nabbing the next Canelo B-side slot.

With not much to gain and so much to lose, Canelo is placing Crawford firmly on the wrong side of the risk vs. reward calculation. And rightfully so, because Crawford might actually have a shot at pulling off the upset. Of course, if the Saudis come up with the $150 million Canelo supposedly wants for a Crawford fight, then all bets are off and Canelo may take the fight after all, despite the very public beef he’s recently had with Alalshikh.

Reality Check

But, assuming even the Saudis wouldn’t go so deep into the red to make such a fight, it’s time for Crawford to step back into his real world– a world where guys like Vergil Ortiz and Jaron Ennis are event-appropriate opposition for him.

Will he take that step back into the real world, though?

Crawford’s recent history, after all, is packed with instances where he’s fallen into big money, despite not being able to generate big money. There was his lucrative deal with Top Rank/ESPN, where promoter Bob Arum publicly lamented how much money he had lost on promoting him. Then, he wandered into a big-money one-off deal with BLK Prime. After that, Errol Spence and PBC pretty much bent over backwards to bring him into the biggest fight of his career, the July 2023 welterweight unification bout with Spence. And now he finds himself in the loving embrace of boxing’s biggest and most generous sugar daddy, Turki Alalshikh.

Crawford has truly led a charmed earning life, relative to his ability to generate revenue.

But he still pines away for more…and, in this case, the only “more” is Canelo Alvarez.

“To be honest, that was my motivation fight,” Crawford told Sean Zittel on the Porter Way Podcast a little over a week ago. “It’s crazy and it makes me laugh with all the antics that Canelo is doing and saying in the media and whatnot about the size and he won’t get no credit and all these types of things, but Canelo been fighting smaller guys his whole career.

“Canelo been making his own catchweight for years. Canelo fought a smaller Mayweather, Canelo fought a smaller Amir Khan. He fought Jermell Charlo. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t make as much money with all those guys– except Mayweather– even Berlanga right now, that he will with me. Still, he has all these excuses why he don’t want to make a fight with me.”

As crazy as it sounds, however, there’s a decent enough chance that Canelo-Crawford might still be made. The money could be there and Canelo has even slightly warmed to the idea over the last few weeks.

That’s enough, apparently, to keep Crawford hoping– and, in the process, inactive for another long stretch of time, away from facing any other serious opposition.