Terence Crawford Stews Over Lost Canelo Fight, Answers Retirement Question

The proposed and buzzed-about fight between new WBA junior middleweight champ/iinterim WBO junior middleweight titlist Terence Crawford and unified super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez is off the books. Not too many people are mourning the loss.

Crawford, however, is still being asked about the nixed bout and, apparently, still stewing over what could’ve been and why it never was.

“[Canelo] Was My Motivation Fight”

“To be honest, that was my motivation fight,” Crawford told Sean Zittel on the Porter Way Podcast. “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.”

Turki vs. Canelo

Crawford’s apparent sponsor, Turki Alalshikh, the chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, had been pushing for the Canelo bout for weeks already, making the occasional public semi-ultimatum to the Mexican superstar.

“I will give Canelo what I think is a fair price,” Alalshikh told ESPN. “If he accepts it, he deals directly with me to finish the deal. I don’t want anyone in the middle. I guaranteed Crawford a big fight, I want Canelo for Crawford and Crawford wants Canelo. But if Canelo is crazy [with his financial demands] I will still guarantee Crawford any fight he wants.”

A few days later, Alalshikh would repeat his offer/ultimatum during an interview on his Riyadh Season pay-per-view show, which featured Crawford vs. Israil Madrimov for the 154 lb. titles.

“I give him the offer,” he said. “If he’s smart, he will accept it.”

Canelo didn’t accept it– not like that, anyway. Alalshikh would subsequently pull the fight off the table and announce his intentions to move Crawford away from the Canelo fight.

“I decided to disregard the Canelo fight, as I don’t want it anymore,” he said via Twitter statement. “Instead, I will be focusing for the US market with bigger fights, especially for the legend Crawford.”

There was then some indirect sniping back and forth between Canelo and the Saudi representative.

Crawford Pondering The Loss Of A Mega-Fight

Crawford, meanwhile, was left pondering what could’ve been.

“If it’s all about business then you’re doing good business,” Crawford said. “If I’m easy work you would take all that money that he’s offering you. But he want $200M for Benavidez and he want $150M to fight me. So that just lets me know right there that I’m a threat to him. I’m a threat to him, I’m a threat to his legacy, because it would be crazy for a guy that started at 135 to come all the way up to 168, your weight, no catchweight or none of that, and dethrone you.

“So he got that in the back of his head. ‘This guy, for one, he’s tough, for two he’s a boxer, he moves, he can punch, he can do it all. I can’t slip up and lose to this little guy, then what would my fans think of me? What would my Mexican people think of me?’ So, it’s a big risk for him like he said. He don’t get nothing out of it, but he does get a lot out of it. None of those guys were pound-for-pound best fighter in the world that he fought when they was coming up in weight.

“He wasn’t getting the amount of money, thrown at him, guaranteed, for those guys that he was getting with me.

“So it just goes to show the level of respect. I look at it as respect that he gives me, I don’t look at it as disrespect. I look at it as the level of respect he thinks of me as a fighter.”

But…Retirement?

When asked by Zittel about the possibility of going out on top, retiring as a pound-for-pound kingpin if he can’t get the big fight(s) he wants, it was clear that Crawford wasn’t planning on going anywhere. But he didn’t entirely rule it out, either.

“Man…it’s something to talk about,” Crawford replied, half sheepishly. “But, right now, I’m still doing what I do.”