David Morrell says a potential fight between Canelo Alvarez and Terence Crawford is “fake” one, done just for “business” purposes.
The Canelo-Crawford fight still hasn’t taken place, but His Excellency Turki Alalshik mentioned in an interview that Crawford is out with an injury until May 2025. Then apparently Canelo will fight next. The Turks will try to combine that fight.
Morelo doesn’t like the idea of Canelo defending against another 154-pounder. He fought four-time unified junior middleweight champion Jermell Charles at 168 on September 30, 2023, and it was not a competitive match. Jermell is bigger and stronger than Crawford. He was too weak for Canelo and looked scared.
Alalshikh was asked why he didn’t try to set up a fight between Crawford and WBC 154lb interim champion Vergil Ortiz Jr. for a huge card on February 22nd in Riyadh, and said Terence was out with a minor injury.
Crawford would never fight Vergil because it’s risky, and he wants to hit the jackpot golden parachute retirement against Canelo. Turki previously mentioned that he didn’t think Crawford would agree to fight Ortiz Jr., so it was obvious that he would not be an option for the February 22 card.
“Regular” WBA light heavyweight champion Morel says he doesn’t like Canelo defending his three super middleweight belts against Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), who would move up from 154.
“Bulls***!” – Morel about Canelo
Morell believes Canelo should defend his title against a contender at 168 instead of choosing the 37-year-old Crawford to defend his title. He says it’s “s***” if Canelo does that.
He already fought Edgar Berlango and Jaime Mungia instead of facing David Benavides when his WBC was mandatory. He showed no interest in fighting Morel even when he was 168 years old and held the ‘regular’ WBA belt.
“It’s simple. This fight is not good,” Morel told Fighthippe when asked about his thoughts on Crawford potentially fighting Alvarez in May 2025. “Canelo is one weight and Crawford is another weight. It’s for work. Canelo has plenty of good fighters at 168.
“He’s got (Crawford) 154. It’s just for business. It’s not good for me. Canelo has four good men at 168 that are good fights. Previously, Benavidez was 168. Why didn’t they fight? Why fight Munguia? Canelo previously said, ‘I never fight the Mexican people.’ Why did you fight Munguia? Later you fight Berlanga.
“You have one guy at 168 who is a must. So right now (Canelo-Crawford) is just for business. They are ending their careers. They have two, three more years. Any guy for money. You got guys at 168. You don’t need a guy at 154 (Crawford). To me, that’s s***.
Sanctioning bodies allow this kind of thing to happen in sport, and it’s pathetic. Canelo defended his then-undisputed super middleweight title against Jermelo, despite Charlo never having fought before at 168. It looks bad when Canelo moves up the top super middleweight titles to defend against someone at 154.
Morel vs. Benavidez: The REAL fight
“For me, it’s the best fight in 2025. It’s Cuba and Mexico.” Those are two young guys,” Morrell said of his Feb. 1 fight against Benavidez. “Everybody says he’s a bogeyman.” I say no. It’s a really great fight. This night ain’t shit. It’s not fake. Everyone go to Vegas. I promise you a good show.”
Morel defends his ‘regular’ WBA light heavyweight title against Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) on February 1 at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The event will be shown live on PBC at Prime Video PPV. The winner of the bout will be in position to challenge for the undisputed 175 lb championship against the winner of the Artur Beterbiyev vs. Dmitry Bivol 2 rematch.
“Benavidez is fake bullying. He used to talk shit to people and they wouldn’t say anything. I’m different,” Morrell said of David Benavides being a bully unless you stand up to him the way he is.
Benavidez hasn’t fought anyone considered a 50-50 matchup in years, and he could have agreed to fight Morel by now when he first called in 2022. He could move up to light heavyweight earlier in his career to be tested instead of waiting until now.
“If you’re nice, I’m nice.” But if you’re a bad boy, I’m more of a bad boy than you. It’s 100% personal for me right now,” Morrell said of Benavidez.
“I looked good for the new division, but I know I can look better,” Morel said of his debut at 175 against Radivoj Kalajdzic on Aug. 3.
Morel comes out with a one-sided decision in 12 rounds over Kalajdžić (29-3, 21 KO), and in that fight he looked good, he was injured several times.
