Arab sheikh Turki Al-Sheikh, an avid boxing fan, promised that by 2025 he will bring several world-class fights, but the jewel in the crown could be the long-awaited fight between Saul Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford, which could be in the works for September.
Both fighters spoke, away from Al-Sheikh’s radar, during a meeting in London last week, and it seems that they would have started the negotiating points for the long-awaited fight between two of the best pound-for-pound fighters today, reported Boxing News Online.
The fight is planned to take place on the weekend of the celebrations for Mexico’s Independence Day in mid-September, ESPN reported.
ESPN boxing specialist Mike Coppinger noted that: “From what I’m told, they’re in the process of finalizing a deal for a fight in September, Mexican Independence Day weekend. And it will be in Las Vegas with the 168-pound weight limit, no rehydration clause.”
However, there is one issue to be defined, and that is that Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) would require an additional 14-pound weight jump to match the weight and category of the Mexican fighter.
Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) has been moving up in weight over the years, after starting out at super welterweight, where he won the WBC world title, and later became the unified middleweight champion (160 pounds). He made a brief stop at light heavyweight (175 pounds) and defeated Sergey Kovalev to win the IBF belt before dropping down to super middleweight, where he would become the first undisputed four-belt champion.
Tyson’s opposition to Canelo-Crawford
Former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson immediately spoke out about the possibility of a fight between Canelo and Crawford, and disagreed with such a fight, especially because of the aforementioned weight difference between the two fighters.
“You know I don’t like that fight. I don’t like that fight. For him (Crawford) the weight difference seemed quite annoying. It’s a lot of weight,” Tyson said.
And to reaffirm his statement, Tyson recalled the fight between Crawford and Israel Madrimov in August 2024, when Crawford reigned as welterweight champion, and moved up to 154 pounds.
The fight went to a decision, something that has happened very little since 2016, but now Crawford would have to move up two weight classes to fight Canelo, so in Tyson’s eyes, “he shouldn’t be fighting that guy.”
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