By: Sean Crose
Talk about having confidence to burn. After soundly beating Errol Spence this past summer to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world, Terence Crawford is entertaining the thought of moving up in weight to challenge himself against the one and only Canelo Alvarez. “Canelo vs Crawford is the biggest fight in boxing,” Crawford tweeted on Friday. “There’s no fighter out there that’s a bigger fight then us.” It’s hard to argue the man isn’t telling the truth. A Canelo-Crawford match would be an enormous affair for the sport. Crawford, who fights a full three divisions under Canelo’s super middleweight realm, would be going above and beyond any sane expectations for a fighter were he to get it on with Canelo in the ring.
Crawford is ambitious, however. He wanted that fight with Spence for a long time (Spence wanted it, as well). Now that he’s met and defeated Spence, Crawford doesn’t strike one as a man who will be content to sit back and rest on his laurels at this point in his career. The Omaha native may usually be a man of few words, but Crawford hasn’t given any indication that he wants to slow down. In fact, the man may well be at the zenith of his career. The win over Spence was so one sided, so completely masterful, that at this point in time it’s hard to deny Crawford his place in history.
Will the man end up crumbling under the weight of his own goals? He might, but then how could he be faulted if he does? Say Crawford does indeed square off with the naturally much bigger Canelo in the near future. What sane person would claim the Crawford’s been “exposed” should he happen to lose? Canelo himself is an all time great.
At the moment, of course, Crawford and Canelo have other things to occupy their minds. Canelo is going to be facing junior middleweight kingpin Jermell Charlo in a few weeks – no small thing – and Spence has activated the rematch clause in his contract with Crawford. That means Crawford will have to face Spence again, despite how one sided the first battle between the two men was. Such a passing of time can lead pipe dreams such as a Canelo-Crawford match to fade away. Yet it can also let the idea simmer until it reaches full boil and becomes a reality.
