Crawford’s Canelo Spin: Trying To Sell A “Legacy” Story

Terence Crawford is still denying that the sole purpose of him going up to 168 to Canelo Alvarez to get a big unearned payday on September 13th. He says he’s going up two weight classes from 154 for his “legacy fight,” which sounds like gibberish.

Legacy Doubletalk

This is just a one-off for Crawford and has nothing to do with legacy. He’s going up for one fight against Canelo at 168 and then returning to 154 or retiring. In this case, “Legacy” is just code for ‘I’m going up to get the payday.’

If Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) was serious about his legacy, he’d move up 168 by beating the top contenders to get to the Canelo fight. He wouldn’t be skipping the line like he is now by jumping up two divisions straight into a world title fight against Alvarez. That is so unfair. It shouldn’t be allowed to happen if boxing were regulated.

Crawford is being allowed to take a shortcut to the top to build a pseudo-legacy, and it’s not genuine. In other sports, you must earn your way to the big game. You don’t skip straight to the finals or the Super Bowl without having a season. What Crawford did at 154, 147, 140, and 135 didn’t give him the right to challenge Canelo for his three super middleweight titles.

Unproven At 168

No one would have a problem with Crawford moving up and fighting for a world title if he worked through the progression of beating the top contenders. If he were to move up and beat the #1 guy, it would show that he’s earning the fight and not just money-hungry. Turki Alalshikh would have told Crawford that he must beat two or three top guys at 168 to get that Canelo fight.

The problem with that is Crawford would lose to all the top contenders. He wouldn’t beat Osleys Iglesias, Christian Mbilli, or Diego Pacheco. Those fighters would knock chips off Crawford, leaving him in broken pieces on the canvas.

“What will they be able to say with me going up two weight classes? If Canelo becomes undisputed again [by defeating IBF champion William Scull on May 3rd], and I beat Canelo, would could they say? They’d find something, but what could they really say?” said Terence Crawford to Cigar Talk about wanting to quiet his critics by moving up two divisions to defeat Canelo Alvarez at 168 and to take his four titles.

“So, that’s the legacy fight right there for me. A lot of people say, ‘He’s money-hungry. He’s looking at money. He’s trying to cash out.’ I been getting money for years, and I’m not stupid with my money, as you can see. I don’t buy no Ferraris or Lamborghini, walk around with 100 people around me and got all this jewelry,” said Crawford.