The Mexican does not rule out the proposal from Saudi Minister Turki Al-Sheikh to face ‘Bud’ in Saudi Arabia if the financial offer is right.
Saudi Minister Turki Al-Sheikh is determined to make Saudi Arabia the new home of boxing, and he has another big fight planned on his soil.
The Arab sheikh has already indicated that he was trying to make a match between Canelo Álvarez (61-2-2, 39 KOs) and Terence Crawford (40-0-0, 31 KOs) a reality, and the Mexican has opened the door to it. “I have no problem,” he replied to ESPN Knockout.
“To tell the truth, I want to continue winning, continue being involved in those kinds of fights, big fights, continue making history, fight by fight. But I know that great things are still to come for me, like when I was going to fight (Gennady) Golovkin. ‘What are you going to do after Golovkin?’. There are many things to do, fight by fight, and things will happen,” Canelo said.
Canelo and Crawford are two of the best pound-for-pound fighters, and the idea of a match between them has excited fans.
“You have two of the best boxers of this decade, not just of recent years. You have two fighters who have been at the top for 10 years,” stated the American in an interview with journalist Mike Coppinger.
Canelo is the current undisputed super middleweight champion, having only lost two fights (to Floyd Mayweather when he was 23 and to Dmitry Bivol 10 years later) and is one of the crowd’s favorites because he always delivers. Despite this, the recent opponents he has chosen have not fully convinced fans, who want fighters of a higher caliber.
Crawford was the undisputed welterweight champion after unifying the titles with his victory over Errol Spence (28-2-0, 22 KOs). Now, he is moving up to a new division, super welterweight, and is set to dispute the WBA and WBO titles of the division in August with Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs). Therefore, the clash Al-Sheikh wants to arrange would be scheduled for early 2025.
“It would be something different for me. Others might like it because they get more money there; the truth is that I don’t need it. I do very well wherever I fight, and I’m comfortable, but the fact of fighting in other countries would be something interesting, but the truth is it’s not something I say: ‘Yes, I want.’ In the end, everything is a process and it will happen,” Canelo explained.