Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn shared a strong relationship with both Canelo Alvarez and Turki Al-Alshikh, but a recent spat between the two has all but ruled out the strongly rumoured showdown between Canelo and Terence Crawford. Now, Hearn has provided further detail on the situation, explaining why the proposal has collapsed.
Canelo’s victory over Jaime Munguia back in May seemed to be the go-ahead for a mammoth scrap between two of the pound-for-pound greats of the decade, as whispers turned to rumours and then into expectations for a meeting between the Mexican and Crawford this December or next February.
‘Bud’ instead decided to first move up to super-welterweight and fight Israil Madrimov to become a four-division champion as Canelo negotiations dragged, but since defeating the Uzbek it has become clear that Canelo-Crawford will remain as nothing more than a fantasy fight.
Al-Alshikh has now publicly shared his belief that Canelo is only interested in ‘easier fights’ and two of the most powerful figures in boxing seem destined to keep away from one another. In an interview with Matchroom Boxing, Hearn explained why Al-Alshikh’s impatience to wait until after Canelo has faced Edgar Berlanga got in the way of the proposed contest.
“It is difficult because I am very fond of both [Canelo Alvarez and Turki Al-Alshikh]. Firstly, His Excellency has one thing on his mind – make the biggest fights that can be made in boxing.
“I think that he probably shares a lot of the frustration with boxing fans over the last few years and I think that what he is bringing to the sport is extremely refreshing because he has no interest in poor fights, tick-over fights or warm-up fights, he just wants to make the biggest fights that can be made.
“In His Excellency’s mind, the fights that he wants to see are Canelo Alvarez against Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez against David Benavidez Jr.
“His Excellency reached out to me on the night of the first [Canelo-Berlanga] press conference in New York and he said to me ‘I want to make Canelo-Crawford. Go and speak to Saul, let’s make this fight’ and I said OK.
“I reached out to Saul and I said that His Excellency wants to make this fight and that I think you should go to see him in Los Angeles because he is there and Saul just said that he was focussed on this fight [with Berlanga] and that he won’t talk about another fight until after this fight.
“It wasn’t the way that Canelo wanted to do that deal, he wanted to wait until after the Berlanga fight, which frustratingly for His Excellency kills the Crawford fight for February, because he wants to get that fight made now.”
Canelo-Berlanga will take place on September 14th live on Amazon Prime Video PPV, topping a card that features two of Alvarez’s former opponents, as well as the return of former world champions Stephen Fulton and Rolando Romero – who each hope to bounce back after losing their belts in their most recent outings.
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