Terence Crawford is looking to move up two divisions to challenge Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
Both future Hall of Famers, Crawford and Canelo are four-weight world champions each coming to the final chapter of their career. For Crawford, the final legacy-defining bout is against the Mexican, who currently holds three of the four major belts at 168 pounds.
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Speaking to Sean Zittel, five-weight world champion Claressa Shields backed Crawford should it happen.
“I think the last few fights I’ve seen Canelo slow down a little bit … Team Crawford, me. It’s gonna be a good one, but Canelo, he’s number two pound-for-pound. Pound-for-pound number one is Crawford, and that’s skill wise.”
When told that Canelo had warned Crawford there are weight classes for a reason, Shields used her own recent winning experience at heavyweight having won titles as low as super-welterweight as a rebuttal.
“Oh that’s beautiful. I’m all the way a heavyweight. That’s because I got the skills, the power and everything to pay the bills. Terence Crawford’s got the skills to pay the bills, the knockout power. He’s very smart in there. And he’s sturdy. Now the weight class can matter a little bit, but boxing matters.”
It’s understood that Canelo will receive an offer now that neither man has a fight coming up. Whether or not he takes it remains to be seen, and he is demanding big money. Having just come off another title defence against Edgar Berlanga, he has shown interest in moving back up to light-heavyweight to rematch Dmitry Bivol.
There are some in the sport that believe Crawford may retire if he doesn’t land the fight, although the man himself recently hinted that he would continue on.
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