LOS ANGELES — Terence Crawford and his team are considering their options at super welterweight after passing a tough 154-pound test Saturday against Israil Madrimov.
Those options don’t necessarily include a prospective super fight with Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, which has long been rumored to be a fantasy fight of renowned dealmaker Turki Alalshikh.
The Riyadh Season boss sat ringside for the Los Angeles event and said he’d sent Canelo an offer to box Crawford.
“If he’s smart, he’ll accept,” Alalshikh told the 22,000-capacity crowd at the BMO Stadium.
Crawford went on to defeat Madrimov by decision that night to become a four-weight world boxing champion atop the first-ever Riyadh Season card in the US.
The victory was by no means as spectacular as when he finished his long-time rival Errol Spence Jr. in Las Vegas last year. And so he may need time to get further acclimated to his new weight class.
His coach, Brian ‘Bomac’ McIntyre, even told World Boxing News and other reporters backstage that they’re open to fighting other big names at super welterweight rather than focusing solely on the PPV monster with Canelo.
“If they want it, they can get it,” Bomac said, regarding possible fights with the teak tough Tim Tszyu and unified super welterweight champion Sebastian Fundora.
Crawford, meanwhile, was non-committal over talks of his next foe.
“Well, if the money’s right, we’ve got a fight,” he said of Canelo. “But …at the same time, he’s got a fight [coming up]. And I’m going to go back to my family, relax, and enjoy this win.”
Canelo returns to the ring himself on September 14 in a super middleweight title fight against Edgar Berlanga and likely won’t entertain talk regarding other bouts.
It is unclear if Canelo will ever accept Alalshikh’s offer, but he’s so far resisted a push from the Saudi Arabian advisor to box Crawford.
Should he reject Alalshikh’s advances once again, then the Saudi official may book a bout between Crawford and Vergil Ortiz, who fights Serhii Bohachuk in a WBC interim super welterweight world title fight on August 10 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas.
Backstage at the Riyadh Season event, Ortiz’s coach, Robert Garcia, told World Boxing News and other reporters that Crawford may not have impressed too many people for the manner in which he beat Madrimov, and that super middleweight may now be too big a jump for him.
“I think Crawford’s performance wasn’t good enough for people to expect him to do good against Canelo,” Garcia told us.
“So maybe [a Crawford vs Ortiz bout] is a great idea [instead].”
Alan Dawson is World Boxing News Lead Writer, a 2 x Sports Journalist of the Year finalist, and 5 x BWAA awards winner. Follow Alan @AlanDawsonSport.
