Two-time welterweight world champion Andre Berto has explained why talks of a mega-fight between the two ‘faces of boxing’, Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez, appeared to have quietened down.
Crawford became the undisputed welterweight champion in July, knocking out Errol Spence Jr in one of the most impressive performances this side of the Millennium.
Recently ‘Bud’ revealed his ambition to become a three-time undisputed champion after also holding all four belts at 140lbs in 2017, and set a goal of jumping up three weight-classes to defeat the pound-for-pound star Canelo.
In an interview with Fight Hub, Berto revealed that, post Spence fight, Crawford told him he was more focussed on dominating the super-welterweight scene than the unprecedented move up to super-middleweight.
“I spoke to Terence after the Spence fight and I told him ‘listen man, that [Canelo] needs to be your next fight’. He can tell you that I said this, he was like ‘nah Bert, I’m good man, I want to deal with this situation at 154lbs. I want to be undefeated, I’m good, I don’t need to go up there, for what?’.”
It appears that the allure of being a part of a ‘legendary’ match-up then made Crawford change his mind and push to fight the Mexican.
“But it seems like after every interview that I see him go on after the fight, that is the name that everybody continues to bring up and letting him know that the fight with Canelo would be legendary. I know Terence’s only reason to want to fight Charlo was because he wanted to be undisputed again [and now he has been stripped of a belt].”
Crawford has now been stripped of his IBF welterweight title ahead of his rematch with Spence due to the sanctioning body’s mandatory situation. Canelo is expected to make a defence of his undisputed 168lbs belts in May of next year.