Canelo Alvarez's decision to begin talks with William Skull on January 10 over a potential fight in May puts Terence Crawford in an uncertain position.
Four-division world champion Crawford is hoping to be the next challenger to unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs), but it looks like he won't get that big-money fight.
Crawford options
Terrence, 37, will now have to start thinking about fighting someone else to keep busy while he waits. He hopes Canelo will give him a payday in September. I don't know if he would have done it then, but you can understand why Crawford would think it would happen.
If Crawford doesn't retire, these would be his best options for inheritance and money purposes:
– Sebastian Fundora
-Jaron “Boots” Ennis
– Tim Tszyu
– Serhiy Bohachuk
– Bakhram Murtazaliev
Fundora will be busy with his expected title defense against Errol Spence and may not be available until the second half of 2025. So, if Crawford wants to fight him, he will have to sit on the shelf for additional time.
He has already been out of action since his narrow win over Israel Madrimov on August 3. We can probably expect Crawford to be out of the ring for about a year and a half if he chooses to wait until the Fundora match. It's not the smartest thing Crawford could do, but if he's unwilling to risk getting beaten by Murtazaliev, Bohachuk, Tszyu or Ennis, it's understandable why he would choose to wait.
Most of those fights require Turki Al-Sheikh to bankroll them for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to be ready to face any of these guys. He's not a PPV guy until a promoter is willing to give him a huge guaranteed purse and hope the match sells.
As we saw in Terrence's recent event against Israel Madrimov, he doesn't have PPV appeal. That's why Turk has to step in so Crawford can fight any dangerous 154-year-old fighters like Murtazaliev or Bohachuk. These would be tough fights for Crawford even if he was young, but now that he's 40, these fighters will be nightmares for him.
Undisputed at 154?
If Crawford were bravewill face IBF 154-pound champion Murtazaliev (23-0, 17 KOs) in a unification bout to put himself in position to face Fundora for the undisputed championship in the second half of 2025.
If Terence can capture the IBF belt, he can pressure Fundora to fight him. Becoming an undisputed junior middleweight champion would raise Crawford's stock in the boxing world, which could help him take the Canelo fight.
It's still not a given that Bud will win the fight because, as we saw previously, Canelo can't be pressured into the fight. He can ignore Crawford for the rest of his career, like he did with David Benavidez, and he won't lose any sleep over the criticism he receives from fans.
