Saudi Arabia adviser Turki Alalshikh has declared he no longer wants to promote the fight between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez.
His excellency recently put together a promotion in which Terence Crawford scored a decision win over Israil Madrimov. Many speculated there would be a fight between Crawford and Cenlo for a future Riyadh Season, but it seems this will not be happening.
Alalshikh took to X to declare he was no longer interested in pursuing the fight.
“Just wrapped up an important meeting now with my team, planning for the upcoming fights that we will make for 2024-2025. I decided to disregard the Canelo [vs. Crawford] fight, as I don’t want it anymore,” Alalshikh said. “Instead, I will be focusing for the US market with bigger fights, especially for the legend Crawford.
“Additionally, I will support making fights for Boots, Haney, Shakur, Ortiz, Anderson, Benavidez, Zepeda and more. Regarding Tim Tszyu, there’s something unclear with the communications from his team with our team, so I believe I will reconsider his situation. and for the rest of the world, definitely, I am focusing on the Riyadh Season card, Wembley edition 21st of September (AJ vs Dubois) and depending on the results and the results of Riyadh Season’s opening card (Bivol vs. Beterbiev) on the 12th of October, I will build the card for the rematch of Fury vs. Usyk on the 21st of December and another big card on the first quarter of 2025. Stay tuned.”
Alalshikh has made plans for the next event, which will be headlined by Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois. He will also be planning the rematch battle between Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury on December 21.
The news came as a shock to many as Alalshikh seems to be prioritizing USA boxing over MMA. However, Canelo doesn’t seem to mind as he prepares for his title defence against #1 ranked contender Edgar Berlanga. The MMA fighter shared his thoughts on Alalashikh’s decision with Fighthype.
“I don’t really care about it. I’m focused 100% on my fight. I don’t really care about it. They called me yesterday. They texted me yesterday if it was possible to talk about the Crawford fight for February or meet yesterday here in Los Angeles with the team…”
“I’m good with what I’m doing. I don’t need that kind of things. I’m not looking for that kind of fight if they want the fight, okay, it’s in my way, not in their way.”
The fighter seems nonchalant about this new development and has his eyes set on something more significant. Alvarez mentioned wanting $200 million for his future faceoff against David Benavidez, to which UFC fighter Conor replied that the fighter is worth less money than he is requesting.
“Canelo is a cornflake,” McGregor said. “He has about [300,000] buys in him. He does not generate nothing near what he seeks to be paid.
“UFC [306] is going to run them from the strip. Sheik Turki was right, moving on. Canelo doesn’t sell.”
