Terence Crawford was photographed sitting next to former WBA light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol at IBF Champions Night. Some believe Bud made this move tactically to get some early tips for a potential fight against Canelo Alvarez next May.
If the idea is for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to pick Bivol’s brain and get some insight on how to beat Canelo, it’s pointless. Crawford is too small, old, weak, and fights nothing like Bivol.
If Canelo doesn’t grant Crawford a favor by giving him the retirement fight, Bud can always ask His Excellency Turki Alalshikh to set him up with fighting the winner of the Artur Beterbiev vs. Bivol 2 rematch.
That’s just as much of a bizarre type of fight as it would be if Crawford moved up two divisions to challenge Canelo for his WBA, WBC, and WBO super middleweight titles.
According to Turki, he wanted to see if Crawford would be interested in fighting Vergil Ortiz Jr. on February 22nd, but he discovered he has a small injury that will keep him out of action until May.
That’s when Canelo fights. It’s easy to see this as a sly move on Crawford’s part to avoid a grueling match that he could lose against the 26-year-old Vergil Jr. to line himself up for a possible fight against Canelo if Turki can negotiate it.
There were unconfirmed rumors that Canelo wanted $180 million for the fight against Crawford, which is one way for him to signal that he’s not interested. Of course, if Turki agrees, it’s all good for Canelo. Crawford may get some ideas with that kind of dough paid to Canelo.
Two years ago, Bivol owned the Mexican superstar Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs), beating him soundly by a 12-round unanimous decision on May 7th in Las Vegas.
That was the worst defeat of Canelo’s career because he looked like he lost 10 of the 12 rounds. The Judges scored it close, but it was NOT remotely close.
Bivol (23-1, 12 KOs) lost his last fight to Beterbiev by a 12-round majority decision on October 12th in Riyadh. Beterbiev clipped Bivol in the seventh, and he wanted no part of fighting after that. In the last five rounds, Bivol was fleeing and not even trying to fight. After that performance, Bivol is not worthy of a rematch and is useless in advising Crawford.
