Terence Crawford does not believe that Canelo Alvarez has been avoiding a fight against David Benavidez all these years, as many fans do. Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) says Alvarez has chosen not to fight Benavidez because he has been “extra disrespectful” to him.
Terence points out that Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) has fought other fighters who have disrespected him, but he took it more personally because Benavidez is “Mexican” and went a little further with his scathing comments. In reality, he is not Mexican. Benavidez is American and has half Ecuadorian and half Mexican roots. He is not from Mexico.
Crawford justifies Canelo Alvarez for avoiding Benavidez
Fans don’t believe that excuse as to why Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez. They just see it as Alvarez not wanting to fight someone who would probably beat him and possibly knock him out.
It’s the same reason Canelo chose to fight Dmitry Bivol when he moved up to 175 instead of Artur Beterbiev three years ago when he fought for a world title in 2022.
It’s no surprise that Crawford is painting a positive picture of why Canelo hasn’t fought Benavidez, because he’s on track to face him on September 13. The last thing Crawford needs is to get on Canelo’s bad side and have him choose not to fight him
The money he will earn fighting Canelo is practically retirement money for Crawford. It would be interesting if Terence started talking trash about Canelo, saying things as they are, and then stubbornly refused to fight him in September. Where would Crawford go?
“When you look at Canelo’s history, about all the disrespectful fighters, challenging him, there were a lot of them. He fought them all. From Shane Mosley to Lara, Danny Jacobs and Saunders,” Terence Crawford told Ring Magazine about Canelo Alvarez’s previous opponents.
“When you look at all the fighters that were disrespectful to Canelo and still fought them. I think from a Mexican standpoint, when you have two Mexicans and one is extra disrespectful to the other, he just took it more personal because of the racial aspect than the sport,” Crawford said about why he thinks Canelo has chosen not to fight Benavidez.
“He got the sport off his back and decided he wasn’t going to give Benavidez the payday he wanted just because he felt something different at the time,” Crawford said.
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