It’s the dream match for many fight fans right now pitting two of the sport’s P4P superstars against each other – Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs Terence Crawford.
And now it appears the dream could actually soon become REALITY with Saudi Arabia looking to continue its move into the US by putting on the blockbuster in the coming months.
Saudi’s General Entertainment Authority – with Chairman Turki Alalshikh at the helm – has transformed the sport in recent months with its star-studded Riyadh Season.
Last October Tyson Fury kicked things off with his crossover fight vs Francis Ngannou, and then in December Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder starred on that massive ‘Day of Reckoning’ bill.
In March AJ was out again, flattening Ngannou with a highlight-reel knockout, and on May 18 we get the big unification fight pitting Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk.
Things continue on June 1 with that Eddie Hearn vs Frank Warren 5 on 5 card featuring Deontay Wilder vz Zhilei Zhang and Filip Hrgovic vs Daniel Dubois.
Then on August 3 in Los Angeles, the first Riyadh Season show will take place in the US, with current P4P king Terence Crawford facing Israil Madrimov in his first fight at 154lbs. That’s a fight and a card which has huge significance for a number of reasons.
Firstly it heralds ‘Bud’ starting to move up in weight from 147lbs and welterweight – something he’d need to do to meet Canelo (who currently holds all the baubles at super-middle – 168lbs).
It also heralds Riyadh Season putting down a marker in the US, and Alalshikh is hoping to continue that by matching Crawford vs Canelo in the biggest fight boxing can make right now.
Turki Alalshikh and Canelo plan
He told Mike Coppinger of ESPN: “I’m working to deliver [Canelo], but it will be big fight [for Crawford]. I’ll discuss with him the names. “
Crawford is now a promotional free agent after splitting with Bob Arum’s Top Rank, and aligning with Alalshikh and Riyadh Season puts him in place to get the fights that nobody else can afford to make.
‘Bud’ himself is excited by the possibilities, telling ESPN: “There’s a lot of respect that comes with Turki and myself. He’s seen the road that I had to take to get to where I am now. And he just wanted to display respect for the sport of boxing and not just somebody that’s coming to hold these type of fighters down and not let the world see him. It’s an honour that he chose me. He could have chosen anybody else. So I’m definitely grateful.”
Of course the big question mark in a Canelo vs Crawford match would be the weight. Until know the gap between the pair has been 21lbs or three weight classes – massive.
Crawford’s move to 154 closes that gap but the talk after that will be how far he can go up from that, and if Canelo can come down from 168 a little. A catchweight affair would seem to make sense.
Right now just the possibility of this fight happening will have boxing fans salivating, and rightly so. The details, they can come later…
The Canelo haters out there claim he is ducking the undefeated David Benavidez, but taking on Crawford would be a nice response from the Mexican megastar.
