'A fair price' – Canelo Alvarez to receive official offer for Terence Crawford fight next, but warned not to be 'crazy' with financial demands

07/27/2024 10:51 AM

Canelo Alvarez will soon receive an official offer for a clash with Terence Crawford.

That’s according to Saudi boxing chief HE Turki Alalshikh, who has expressed his desire to stage the North American super fight in 2025.

Both men already have contests scheduled beforehand.

Crawford will be in action next weekend as he challenges Israil Madrimov for the WBA super-welterweight world title.

This fight is being staged by HE Alalshikh in LA as part of a ‘Riyadh Season Card’ to promote future events in Saudi Arabia.

He intends to continue working with Crawford moving forwards and has vowed to deliver a big event for him.

Canelo announced his next move earlier this week.

He will return to action defending his super-middleweight crown against Edgar Berlanga on September 14 in Las Vegas.

Canelo has been stripped of his IBF title so is no longer undisputed champion, but remains WBA, WBC and WBO king.

Should both he and Crawford emerge victorious, an offer will be put on the table to bridge 14lbs gap between their weight classes and get them into the ring together.

"I will give Canelo what I think is a fair price,” HE Alalshikh told ESPN.

“If he accepts it, he deals directly with me to finish the deal. I don’t want anyone in the middle.

“I guaranteed Crawford a big fight, I want Canelo for Crawford and Crawford wants Canelo.

“But if Canelo is crazy [with his financial demands] I will still guarantee Crawford any fight he wants."

Between December 2020 and November 2021, Canelo stormed through the 168lbs division, beating all three unbeaten world champions in the space of just 11 months to become WBA, WBC, IBF and WBO king.

At the time, he was boxing’s pound-for-pound king, dominating as undisputed at super-middleweight and a four-division champion.

However, Canelo then took a leap too far as he lost to Dmitry Bivol while trying to challenge one of the top dogs at light-heavyweight (175lbs).

Since then, the Mexican has wisely returned to super-middleweight and been defending his crowns.

Now though, Canelo has been left in a predicament which has resulted in him being stripped of his IBF world title.

For his next fight on September 14, he was ordered to defend against his little-known IBF mandatory challenger William Scull.

Because this is not a very marketable fight though, Canelo has instead opted to fight Berlanga.

Therefore he’s been stripped of his IBF belt and lost his undisputed status.