Tim Bradley got on his soapbox this week to pressure Canelo Alvarez to give Terence Crawford the fight that he’s been asking for against him.
That’s the fight that Crawford, 37, urgently wants but has remained elusive to him due to his unwillingness to earn it through hard work by defeating the top dogs at 168 & 175.
Golden Parachute
Bradley urges unified super middleweight champion Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) not to “run away” from a fight against Crawford. This fight does nothing for Canelo. It’s seen as a vehicle for Crawford to get the golden parachute to give him a soft landing into retirement and allow him to live comfortably in his golden years in a giant mansion in Beverly Hills.
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) looked horrible in his last fight against 154-lb champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd and showed that he’s reached the limit of how far he can go in moving through divisions. Terence was eating right hands all night from Madrimov and looked like an old man in that fight. Why could Canelo want to fight Crawford after that performance?
“Canelo, don’t run away from this. You already ran away from the Benavidez fight,” said Tim Bradley on his YouTube channel, talking about his wanting Canelo Alvarez to fight Terence Crawford. “You don’t care about what people have to say about you anyway about the fact that you didn’t take the fight.
“You’re walking about Mexico and you obviously don’t care about what people think about you about not taking that fight. Make the fight with Crawford. That’s a fight that everybody wants to see you take, and it’s going to give Crawford the opportunity to show you and show the world his greatness,” Bradley continued.
“Everybody is talking about the weight. ‘Oh, he’s going to knock him out.’ When was the last time Canelo knocked somebody out? Y’all can quit with that, ‘He’s going to knock Crawford out.’ Canelo is the same height as Crawford [5’8″]. Canelo started out at 147 pounds. He’s not a natural 168-pounder,” said Bradley.
Canelo is a lot bigger, stronger, and more talented than Crawford. Fans saw how the 37-year-old Terence barely beat Israil Madrimov in his debut at 154 last August, and they quite rightly see the Nebraska native as being too small and old to move up 14 lbs to 168 to challenge Canelo for his unified titles.
Proving Ground
If Crawford were willing to prove himself by moving up to 168 and running the gauntlet through David Benavidez, David Morrell, Artur Beterbiev, and Christian Mbilli, fans wouldn’t be averse to this fight happening. But since Crawford is unwilling to do that, he doesn’t rate a fight against King Canelo. He gets ignored like other needy fighters who are begging Alvarez to give them an unearned fight.
To meet with the King, you must do something great. It’s always been like that. Crawford is trying to skip that part and just beg for the fight or have others attempt to pressure Canelo on his behalf.
“We just saw a fighter [Oleksandr Usyk] that was 50 lbs lighter than the other man [Tyson Fury] that he faced, and he beat him. He beat him with his skill, ability, heart, and determination. Usyk is a great fighter. You know who else is a great one is Crawford,” said Bradley.
The difference is that the 36-year-old Tyson Fury is completely washed up in the clinical sense, always overrated, and manufactured, thanks to the careful matchmaking done by his promoters.
Canelo isn’t a hype job and has actual talent to go along with his power and size. More importantly, he’s a proven PPV draw. Crawford isn’t a PPV draw and never will be. This fight is just about helping Crawford financially and making his fans, like Bradley, happy.
This fight does nothing for Canelo. If Bradley really cared, he would position Crawford to take on the killers in the 154-lb division, which includes many that he still needs to fight. Bakhram Muratazaliev is waiting for Crawford, and if he wants to cement his legacy, he needs to fight him.
