Canelo Slammed For Ducking Benavidez And Crawford – ‘His Children Will Ask Him Why’
Canelo Alvarez will not fight Terence Crawford and David Benavidez, putting question marks over his next fight.
The Mexican announced that his next bout would be an American, leaving Jermall Charlo and Crawford as the favorites. They are both American and have expressed their desire to get the fight. Charlo initially stated he was fighting Canelo on May 4, only to do a U-turn.
“So everybody that keeps talking about, ‘Oh you’re about to fight Canelo,’ – ain’t no confirmation. I’m in the islands somewhere! You’ve got to chill out. Until it’s official, it’s official. I offered. I said I would do whatever I gotta do. We was on the jet skis, I stopped for this,” Charlo said
That left Crawford as the number one contender. He has been training with super-middleweight fighters, which could only be explained if he is fighting Alvarez. He would have to move up three weight classes to make the fight happen. But any chances of that bout happening are now over.
Canelo Reacts
“No, [I am not fighting Crawford]. Yes, but they’re going to criticise me… and that’s it, they love it. They criticised me because I fought [Jermell] Charlo who gained weight, who is bigger than me, because I’m a small fighter for these weights, and because he gained weight, but they didn’t criticise him when I went up in weight,” Canelo stated
David Benavidez and Edgar Berlanga are the only fighters who would fit that description. The Mexican Monster is American, even with his Mexican background. That is the fight boxing fans are hoping for, as Benavidez has been the WBC mandatory for over a year. He is seen as the biggest threat to Canelo, who has been accused of ducking him. If the WBC does mandate that fight, Canelo will have no choice but to face him or be stripped. But Benavidez’s promoter has said Canelo does not want the fight.
Berlanga On Canelo
Berlanga is another option. He is undefeated with a 21-0 record, which includes 16 knockouts. He currently fights on DAZN with Matchroom Boxing, making that fight a little more complicated to make. Canelo has a two fights left on his PBC deal, and they like to keep their fights in-house. But since Canelo is a huge draw who has fought on DAZN, he may have enough pulling power to get a co-promotional bout if the numbers stack up. Based on Berlanga’s previous comments, he is ready to make it happen.
“That’ll be perfect, [a Cinco De Mayo fight against Alvarez], because I’ll just be coming off a beautiful win…Right now he’s the boss at 168. He makes the moves. He’s the money man at 168. He can do whatever he wants to do if he feels like it.
“You can’t take that away from him. He paid his dues to get to that point and pick and choose who he wants to fight. Once I make a statement I can call him out. Besides [David] Benavidez I don’t think there is a bigger fight out there for him,” Berlanga said
Fans React
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