Mikey Garcia: Crawford vs. Canelo is a “big fight” for money, not legacy

Former multi-division world champion Mikey Garcia says he’s not a fan of Terence Crawford moving up two weight classes to challenge Canelo Alvarez for his three super middleweight belts.

Mikey feels it’s too much for Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) to fight the heavier and more powerful Canelo (62-2-2, 39 KOs) after struggling in his recent move to 154 against Israil Madrimov on last august He thinks Crawford should stay at 154 and look to unify against the other champions.

He thinks he probably won’t because there’s no money in fighting the other junior middleweight belts compared to what he can get fighting Canelo. Mikey says the Canelo-Crawford fight is a “great fight” for the “money” it will bring, but it’s not great because of the size mismatch.

Mikey doubts Crawford

Crawford didn’t show much power against Madrimov and was uncomfortable eating the right hand.

“Canelo is fighting at 168. Crawford just moved up to 154, and he had some issues in this fight,” Mikey Garcia told Fight Hub TVexpressing disapproval of Terence Crawford fighting three-time unified super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez. “Now, where do you plan to go? At 164, 165 or 166? Canelos is not going to go down to 160. He’s going to go down to 166 if he accepts.

“I think Canelo wins this fight just based on power and size. Skill-wise, I think Crawford is a more skilled fighter, but the size difference will be the deciding factor. That’s why I’m not a fan of ‘this fight I think Crawford got everything he had to get.

“From 140 to 147, and now 154. That’s even great for him. If you want to do something. He picks up the belts at 154. He can try, but there’s no money compared to the Canelo fight. Canelo is trying to fight other guys,” Garcia said.

Crawford’s payday

Crawford obviously wants the Canelo fight for the money, and that’s the only reason. If it were a legacy, Crawford would first move up to 160 to fight the champions in that weight class, but he doesn’t because none of them are stars.

No money for Crawford. He wants that, and fighting Canelo will provide him with that payday. He has Turki Al-Sheikh to thank for this because he is the one who makes it possible. If it wasn’t for him, Canelo wouldn’t bother fighting Crawford.

“At this point, it’s more of a big fight for the money it’s going to make,” Mikey said of the Canelo-Crawford matchup. “But as a fight fan, I’m not a fan of this matchup. I’d rather see Canelo go up and fight Beterbiev or Bivol again. If he wanted to challenge himself, go back up to 175 and challenge those guys. Nor a smaller guy moving up (Crawford).

Canelo likely won’t move up to 175 unless Dmitry Bivol can capture the undisputed light heavyweight championship in his rematch with Artur Beterbiev on February 22. If Bivol wins this fight, Canelo might be interested in moving up in weight for a rematch because it would allow him to try to become an undisputed two-division champion.

Also, the money Canelo would get for that fight would be huge. There would be less backlash for Alvarez if he loses to Bivol again because he’s moving up in weight against a bigger guy. Since Bivol is a finesse fighter, Canelo is less worried about fighting him than if Beterbiev won on February 22nd.

Stay at 154

“Same thing with Crawford. He doesn’t need to move up to fight Canelo. He can only fight guys at 154,” Mikey said.

Crawford would probably only be interested in fighting WBC and WBO Junior Middleweight Champion Sebastian Fundora for his belts at 154 because it’s a fight where he wouldn’t have to worry so much about getting knocked out. If Crawford were to challenge IBF champion Bakhram Murtazaliev or WBC interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr, he could be stopped. These guys are younger and more powerful than him.