FRESH from their lunch appointment, Canelo and Terence Crawford finally got down to the real business this evening in Riyadh with a launch press conference. As usual, Turki Alalshikh’s commentary was of particular interest when he reiterated his desire to banish boxing’s runners and encourage more heavy leather to be exchanged.
Referring to “Tom and Jerry fights” where one fighter is chasing the other one, similar to the classic cat and mouse cartoon antics, Turki has a plan to outlaw anyone wishing to bring their running shoes to the party.
Cuba’s William Scull delivered one such track and field effort on May 3, negating Canelo for 12 rounds, losing a unanimous decision by varying score totals. Rather than take any of the responsibility for failing to hunt down and destroy such an opponent, Canelo naturally heaped the blame on swift-footed Scull for his approach.
“You think that was a fight? No, I don’t think so. That’s a deception for me,”
“Because I come to fight, but you need to have both fighters think the same, right? And a little deceptional [sic] but we win. That’s all that matters. And we are focused 100% on this fight.
“This fight is big. And for me, making history is my goal my whole life. So I’m very excited for this fight.”
Terence Crawford hasn’t graced the ring since August 2024 when he outpointed Israil Madrimov in Los Angeles on a Riyadh Season card. Moving up in weight seemed to catch up with ‘Bud’ slightly, allowing the tricky Madrimov to enjoy periods of success. No stress as far as Crawford is concerned.
“I thought my fight was a clear-cut victory. It may have not been what the fans are used to seeing being that I was on a KO streak. So I’m cool with my performance and my victory,” said the multi-weight undisputed king.
Aiming to be bigger and better in this next one, Crawford will need to be both of those things if he is to topple Canelo Alvarez at 168 pounds. Moving up two weight classes, against an established bigger man, Crawford may be in danger of violating the no-running policy if he is to prevail.
“However I’ve got to fight, I’m going to win. Simple as that,” he outlined.
“I’m not going to let somebody else force me or tell me how to fight when I’ve been fighting my whole life. I won’t be running, I can tell you that. But I will be doing a lot of touching.”
