The Terence Crawford – Canelo Alvarez fight is the most talked about prospective matchup. But, there is still a long way to go before the fight comes to fruition. For starters, Canelo has put an astronomical price tag of $150 million to be lured into a matchup with ‘Bud’. Even the most sought-after matchmaker in boxing, HE Turki Alalshikh, also failed to convince Canelo to take up the offer to fight Crawford.

Meanwhile, the two-time undisputed champion is more keen on fighting the Mexican boxing legend but doesn’t want to look desperate.  On that note, when Matchroom boxing head honcho Eddie Hearn half-jokingly told his former charge Canelo Alvarez, during their press event for the upcoming fight against Edgar Berlanga, that he had to use his name to “sell” the recently concluded Crawford vs. Madrimov fight, ‘Bud felt it was a bit “disrespectful”.  “He’s trying to stay friends with him, but it’s disrespectful to me, you know. Because, we didn’t have to use Canelo name to promote nothing,” Crawford told Sean Zittel on the Porter Way Podcast.

Recently, boxing reporter Michael Benson caught up with Eddie Hearn to seek a response regarding Crawford’s comments about him feeling “disrespected” about Eddie Hearn saying what he said to Canelo. “He’s a bit touchy, isn’t he?” Hearn responded, pointing out that he was joking with Canelo when he made the comment. But, was he? “Well, I was and I wasn’t. We don’t ‘use’ Canelo’s name, but he was a massive talking point that week.”

There is some semblance of truth in what Eddie Hearn is saying because that is the fight the boxing fans want to watch, and Crawford himself had shown interest in fighting Canelo Alvarez. “All of you guys want to talk about Crawford vs Canelo so yeah we’re gonna talk about it,” Hearn stated. Well, as expected, Hearn was quite unapologetic about making the “We have to use your (Canelo Alvarez) name to sell the show” statement. To be fair, the conversations about two pound-for-pound kings potentially meeting inside the squared circle are hard to shut down, and roping in Canelo Alvarez did add a bit of intrigue to Terence Crawford’s previous fight.

Interestingly enough, in a previous interview, Eddie Hearn did state that Canelo fighting Crawford is highly unlikely.

Size matters?

In an earlier interview with TalkSport, the renowned British boxing promoter said that Alvarez would most likely pick David Benavidez over Crawford. “I think he’d pick Benavidez over Crawford because he knows he’d get the credit for that win, whereas he might not vs a guy three divisions lower.”

The weight gap between the two fighters does seem like a cause for concern as Crawford’s last fight was against Madrimov at 154, and Alvarez has been steady at 168 lbs since 2020. However, Hearn thinks that the fight would be a mismatch as Canelo will overpower and outsize him at 168.

“When I met Saul, he wasn’t crazy on that [Crawford] fight. He just felt that you have got a welterweight coming up to light-middleweight, going up to super-middleweight and that he wouldn’t get any credit for that win,”  the promoter further added.

As things stand, he has priced out both elite contenders, putting a tag of $200 million for the David Benavidez fight and $150 million for the ‘Bud’ Crawford fight. So a fight against either is highly unlikely. That is unless Canelo himself gives a go-ahead.

Do you think Canelo Alvarez will fight Terence Crawford or David Benavidez? Let us know in the comment section below.