Boxing
Crawford bitter after losing chance to fight Canelo
Published
4 months agoon
A disgruntled Terence Crawford today vented his frustration over the loss of huge man Canelo Alvarez.
Crawford believes unified super middleweight champion Canelo (61-2-2, 39 KOs) doesn’t want to fight him because he fears for his legacy if he loses. He would look bad in front of his fans if he was defeated by someone flashier who started his career at 135.
Canelo’s Financial Demands
His Excellency Turki Alalshikh decided that he did not want to continue trying to make a fight between Canelo and Crawford because the Mexican star was asking for a lot of money. The fight was set at $150 million, the amount Canelo was asking for.
From Canelo’s perspective, when you hear that Tyson Fury was paid more than $100 million to fight Oleksandr Usyk in their first fight last May and likely significantly more for the rematch on December 21, the $150 million that Canelo is asking for doesn’t seem irrational.
It is Turki Alalshikha’s prerogative not to pay Canelo the requested price for the Crawford fight, but one can understand why he is asking for such a sum. Canelo-Crawford is a much bigger fight in the US than Fury-Usyk. But if Turki really wants Canelo vs. Crawford, he will pay him.
Impact of Crawford’s Recent Results
We don’t know if Turki has scrapped plans for a fight between the two because of Crawford’s unimpressive win over WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov last Saturday night in Los Angeles, where Crawford narrowly won a fight against a fighter who lacked Canelo’s power, attack and talent.
Crawford’s reaction time to punches seemed snail-paced. He took a lot of tough punches, and his power wasn’t at 154. His punches were in the lower 147-pound spectrum. So if Crawford can’t punch at 154, he’ll have trouble at 168.
Crawford getting beaten by Canelo won’t stop Turki from fighting because the fight would have happened anyway. However, when Canelo wipes out Crawford, the fans will be furious and feel cheated.
Who are they going to blame? The guy who organized the fight, Turki. Now he knows Crawford has no chance against Canelo. So it makes sense for him to back out of trying to make that fight.
“That was my motivation,” Terence Crawford said on Sean Zittel’s show Youtube channel about how Canelo Alvarez got motivated to continue his career after his victory over Israil Madramimov last Saturday night.
Crawford said his motivation was to fight Canelo after the Madrimov fight, but that is no longer possible and he is not content.
“It’s crazy and it makes me laugh when Canelo says in the media that he won’t get any credit,” but Canelo fought smaller fighters his entire career as Crawford.
Canelo with little advantage
It’s unclear whether Crawford is pretending not to understand Canelo’s reasons for not fighting him. If so, Canelo will not receive credit for the win and will be vilified by the entire promotion.
If Crawford is a little competitive, he comes out as the hero, while Canelo gets knocked down. You don’t hear Crawford saying he wants to fight lightweights like Gervonta Davis and Shakur Stevenson because he knows the boxing public would laugh at him if he tried to fight those guys. They’re a lot smaller.
It is not true that Canelo has fought smaller guys throughout his career. Here are some examples of Canelo’s fights with bigger guys:
– Dmitry Bivol
– Sergei Kovalev
-Jaime Munguia
-James Kirkland
“Canelo has been creating his own soft-weight division for years. He’s fought the smaller Mayweather,” Crawford said. “Canelo’s fought the smaller Amir Khan and Jermel Charlo. I’m pretty sure he hasn’t made as much money as all those guys, except Mayweather. Even Berlanga now, like he would against me, and he still has a lot of excuses for why he doesn’t want to fight me.”
Crawford was bigger than many of his opponents when he fought at 135 and 140. He was always bigger than his opponents in those two weight classes and used his size. Crawford is an A-1 hypocrite when he says Canelo has fought smaller guys his entire career when he himself did the same thing.
“When it comes to business, you’re doing good business. I heard him say I was simple work. If I was simple, you’d take all the money he [Turki Alalshikh] offers you, but he wants $200 million to fight Benavidez and $150 million to fight me,” Crawford said.
If His Excellency won’t give Canelo the $150 million he allegedly asked for, you can’t blame him for not wanting to fight Crawford. He thinks the fight is worth that much. If Turki doesn’t want to pay, that’s his business. Instead of getting mad at Canelo, Crawford should ask Turki why he didn’t want to put up the money for the fight.
“It just lets me know that I’m a threat to him. I’m a threat to him and a threat to his legacy, because it would be crazy for a guy [Crawford] it started at 135 and went up to your weight [168]. Your weight, not your final weight, no, none of that, and I’ll dethrone you,” Crawford said.
Canelo doesn’t see Crawford as a threat to his legacy because he’s too delicate and not robust enough to fight a fighter as robust as he is. For Crawford to have a chance against Canelo, he would need the size and strength of Gennady Golovkin. He doesn’t have that. He’s feeble and not adolescent, he turns 37 in September.
“So he has it in the back of his mind. “This guy [Crawford talking in the third person]”First of all, he’s tough. Second of all, he’s a boxer. He moves, he can punch, he can do everything. I can’t slip up and lose to this little guy. What are my fans going to think of me? What are my Mexican fans going to think of me?'” Crawford said of Canelo.
It’s a no-win situation for Canelo to fight an aging 154-pounder like Crawford, who came off a needy performance in a fight many fans thought he lost to Madrimov. That’s probably Canelo’s fear. It’s a no-win situation for Canelo, just like if Crawford decided to fight super bantamweight Naoya Inoue.
“It’s a huge risk for him, like he said. There’s nothing in it. None of these guys were the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world that he fought when they came up in weight. None of these guys,” Crawford said.
Being a so-called pound-for-pound fighter doesn’t mean anything in terms of money. If Crawford wants to call himself a pound-for-pound fighter, that’s great, but he’s not attractive and he’s not a huge PPV attraction.
The only people who follow pound-for-pound rankings are ultra-hardcore fansAverage fans don’t look at these ratings to decide whether to buy a fight on PPV.
“He wasn’t getting the guaranteed amount of money that was thrown at him for those guys that he’s getting against me,” Crawford said of Canelo’s previous fights. “That shows a level of respect. I look at it as respect that he shows me. I don’t look at it as disrespect.”
This shows that Canelo has a price he is asking for and His Excellency is clearly not interested in paying him the amount he wants. With an estimated net worth of $250 million, Canelo now has enough money to ask for a price for a specific fight. If he doesn’t get it, it’s not a huge deal because he has a lot of other fighters he can fight and still make good money.
Canelo’s Perception of Crawford
“I take that as the level of respect he has for me as a fighter. Right now, I’m still doing what I’m doing,” Crawford said when asked if he would retire and leave the game rather than stay.
Canelo probably sees Crawford as an aging, smaller fighter with a lifeless Mayweather-like fighting style looking for golden parachute payday that will assist him survive his retirement years. Alvarez said he saw Madrimov as the true winner of their fight.
He believes Crawford should have lost the fight to Madrimov, as do many boxing fans. It doesn’t assist that Canelo fights Crawford, who won controversially.
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Boxing
Mike Tyson had absolutely no chance of knocking out Jake Paul
Published
10 hours agoon
November 21, 2024One of the hottest topics surrounding Mike Tyson’s return at the age of 58 was the possibility of the boxing legend scoring a knockout of Jake Paul.
WBN has weighed in on this topic several times, questioning the validity of five-second training clips that revealed nothing about Tyson’s abilities at this overdue age. One of the most intriguing observations during the preparations was the opinion of UFC commentator Daniel Cormier.
Speaking on his show “Funky and the Champ,” Cormier reflected on Tyson’s social media videos and offered an informed opinion on the meaning of the clips.
“I understand that [he is in amazing shape at 58]and I understand what he is saying [he feels as though he can compete]– Cormier said. “And I agree that when he hits the pads with Rafael Cordeiro, it looks like there’s still something left in him.
“But then I watch Jake Paul fight Mike Perry. I saw Jake Paul get overwhelmed to the point where he started to feel uncomfortable. It looked like Mike Perry had a chance. But Jake has a reserve tank he can go to and benefit from because he’s 28 years ancient. Then he comes back and finally finishes Mike Perry.
“At the beginning of the fight, Mike Perry gets beaten up and dropped. He looks trained and unmatched. This worries me because what if it looks like a 58-year-old man fighting a 28-year-old man while Mike can’t employ the backup tank to stay and compete with this newborn kid? I think it’s a failure for Jake Paul because if you beat Mike Tyson, everyone will love him.
He added: “What if Mike knocks him out? It’s over. Everything is ready. This would be the backfire of all time. If he gets knocked out, nothing like that has ever happened in the history of the sport.”
Unfortunately for Tyson, this revenge backfired spectacularly, as the former heavyweight champion’s return was the only event that bombed. Tyson had nothing left twenty years after he had nothing left in his tank and no desire to box in his mind.
Paul parlayed this into a money-making scheme that would forever be a success for him and his company, but would be poorly received by the die-hard boxing fraternity.
Cormier’s words resonate, especially after what happened in the ring when Mike Tyson struggled to shift into first gear, warning former fighters thinking about returning after 50.
Boxing
Lauren Price looks to win Jonas vs Habazin with an undercard victory
Published
1 day agoon
November 21, 2024Lauren Price MBE will defend her world title for the first time on Saturday, December 14 at the Exhibition Center in Liverpool, while the Welsh champion plans to stage an all-British unification clash with welterweight rival Natasha Jonas, which will headline the Collision Course that night.
Price defends her WBA welterweight title against undefeated Colombian challenger Bexcy Mateus on the same night as Jonas attempts to unify the IBF and WBC titles with Ivana Habazin as part of BOXXER’s ‘Collision Course’ fight night, which can be seen live and exclusively on Sky Sports in the UK UK and Ireland and Peacock in the US.
Price MBE (7-0, 1 KO) made history with an excellent performance, defeating former undisputed welterweight world ruler Jessica McCaskill in front of her fans in Cardiff in May.
Price, the first Welsh boxer to win Olympic gold, once again entered the record books by becoming the country’s first world champion in just her seventh professional fight. The 30-year-old from Ystrad Mynach, who has yet to lose a round as a professional, will now defend her world titles for the first time as she focuses on dominating the welterweight division.
Mateus (7-0, 6 KO), ranked No. 5 in the WBA rankings, is undefeated in the professional ranks and has won all but one of her seven fights by knockout. The 29-year-old from Bogota, fighting outside her native Colombia for the first time, will now have her first chance at global fame, with her goal to dethrone Price and take the top spot in the welterweight division.
Lauren Price said: “I’m excited to defend my belts and complete what has been an crucial year for me. I have full respect for Mateusz. I will prove that I am the best in the division and I will not let anything or anyone stand in my way of being undisputed.”
BOXXER Founder and CEO Ben Shalom said: “It’s a massive night for the women’s welterweight division with three world champions competing. Natasha Jonas returns to her hometown for a mandatory unification fight against Ivana Habazin, and Lauren Price defends her world titles against undefeated challenger Bexcy Mateus. The fight for the undisputed continues. If Natasha and Lauren win on December 14, it will set the stage for a massive “Battle Of Britain” world title unification fight next year.
There’s reason to celebrate as BOXXER delivers a Christmas cracker to end the year. In addition to the world championship fights between Natasha Jonas and Lauren Price, fight fans can expect a gala full of drama and entertainment.
Undefeated Irishman Stephen McKenna (15-0, 14 KO) will face English champion Lee Cutler (14-1, 7 KO) in an invigorating super welterweight fight for the silver WBC International title.
McKenna impressed fans in his three-round fight against Joe Laws last August at Oakwell Stadium in Barnsley. The two struck out in the first round, then McKenna began to apply the pressure, losing Laws three more times and maintaining his undefeated record after a third-round stoppage.
English cruiserweight champion Viddal Riley (11-0, 6 KO) returns to action from a rib injury that has kept him out of the ring since a career-best victory over Mikael Lawal in March. Riley will be looking to shake off the ring rust as he takes on high-profile opponents in the recent year.
Undefeated Chorley super middleweight Mark Jeffers (18-0, 5 KO) scored an explosive fifth-round knockout victory over Darren Johnston in May and will be looking to bring more drama to Liverpool’s Exhibition Center as he goes in search of his 19th professional win.
Mason Cartwright (20-4-1, 8 KO) from Cheshire, a former two-time British title challenger from Ellesmere Port, will be counting on local support as he returns to the title track.
After signing a promotional contract with BOXXER, local star Frankie Stringer (8-0, 1 KO) can achieve his third victory in 2024, when he returns in front of his fans in Liverpool. The 23-year-old lightweight fighter is a player of the notable city team Rotunda ABC, and his manager is former world champion Liam Smith.
Boxing
Heavyweight who knocked out Lewis to break Tyson’s record days after the feat
Published
3 days agoon
November 19, 2024Mike Tyson will miss his final record-breaking days after becoming the oldest former heavyweight champion to walk through the ring.
“The Baddest Man on the Planet” reached an all-time high in Texas on Friday night, returning from a two-decade absence. However, Tyson gave the achievement five days later to former Lennox Lewis conqueror Oliver McCall.
On Tuesday night at The Troubadour in Nashville, Tennessee, the former WBC heavyweight champion returns to action and will face veteran Stacy Frazier in a fight scheduled for four rounds. At age 59, McCall will set the record for a sanctioned fight, beating Tyson by fourteen months.
McCall was born in April 1965, and Tyson’s mother gave birth to him in June 1966. “The Atomic Bull” hopes to score his 60th career victory tonight. He enters the fight with a record of 59-14, including 38 knockouts.
The Chicago native believes his continued activity over the last 19 years will be what separates his performance on Tuesday night from what Tyson looked like on Friday.
“I’m ready. I’ve been training here in Nashville for a few weeks now, but I’m always in shape,” McCall said. “It will be a completely different match than what the fans saw on Friday.
“I think being lively has a lot to do with it. I haven’t fought in five years because of the pandemic and a few things that didn’t work out.
“If you look at my record, since 2005 I have fought 25 times, of which I have won 19-6 times against quality fighters and won various regional titles.
McCall fights without financial motivation. He sees his fighting days approaching and is already planning his post-retirement plans.
“I want to do this for another year. This means I will be 40 years into my career as a professional boxer. Then I want to train and become a manager. I want to return the favor and assist the next generation of players try to become world champions.
“I came here to Nashville and contacted the manager who took me to the title [Country Box] promoter Jimmy Adams. I’m learning a lot about this aspect of the sport. I love the players here and everything that happens with Country Box.”
The Country Box 25 gala will also feature eight-round fights between super bantamweight Elon DeJesus (8-1-2, 7 KO) and Dominique Griffin (5-7-2, 2 KO), as well as super middleweight fighters. Sean Hemphill (16-2, 10 KO) fights Bryant McClain (6-5-2, 1 KO).
Airy heavyweight Isaac Carbonell (8-0, 5 KO) will face Antonio Louis Hernandez (7-19-4, 4 KO) in six-round fights; Joel Mutombo (6-0, 4 KO) vs. Kevin Torian (3-2, 3 KO) in a cruiserweight fight.
In a four-round fight, Ryan Zempoaltecatl (2-0, 1 KO) will face Raymond Chacon (10-64-1, 2 KO).
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