Turki Alalshikh proposed Terence Crawford vs David Benavidez following the Canelo Alvarez clash. Crawford showed his skills and power carried exactly the same at super middleweight, two divisions above his usual weight.
He defeated Canelo by unanimous decision, 116-112, 115-113, and 115-113, on September 13 and now holds the undisputed super middleweight title. Canelo, meanwhile, dominated the division over the years and defeated all-comers. Hence, it's hard to see anyone beating Crawford if Canelo couldn't.
Benavidez is currently fighting at light heavyweight and him coming down to 168 lbs could make matters interesting as the Mexican never got the Canelo fight at super middleweight. However, Crawford has made his stance clear on potentially facing Benavidez.
Crawford dismissed facing Benavidez, claiming he is too big. He claimed the size difference is too much with Benavidez whereas Canelo is not a big super middleweight. He told Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman on the Pound4Pound podcast:
"Benavidez is a big dude. Not to say I won't fight him, I fought his brother, and he was also big when I fought him. Why I entertain Canelo is because he is not a big dude. He might be thick, but he's not a big dude. Benavidez is six foot something, Then he's gonna come in 190 lbs, 200 lbs probably."Terence Crawford
"He's a big dude. I might as well go to heavyweight if I fight Benavidez," added Crawford. "You just size them up, especially when you're going into a higher weight class. You size them up and you see your advantages."
Usman thinks Canelo has lost his mean spirit. He pointed out that Alvarez was too friendly with Crawford before and during the fight, and also didn't look focused during the contest. Usman thinks Canelo might have lost the mental edge he used to have.
He said, "One of the most important things to me that I saw in this is I’ve never seen Canelo in the position where he’s at now to where he’s starting to kind of complain a little bit. Starting to kind of look away in the fight, starting to kind of lose focus in the fight. I’ve never seen that before."
"Then, there was moments even leading before, after the weigh-ins, where he’s congratulating Terence, saying thank you for making the fight happen."
"I don’t know whether it’s because he’s at the age now where he’s starting to kind of really soak all this in and know that the end is coming near. That mean-spirited Canelo wasn’t there."
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