Terence Crawford has ended speculation that Turki Alalshikh tried to get him back in the ring with a second fight with Canelo Alvarez. Nearly a year after retiring following his victory over the Mexican superstar, the former undisputed champion said no rematch had ever been promised, a revelation that raises questions about why the matchup never happened again.
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The answer may come down to business. Canelo vs. Crawford produced great numbers for the championship boxing event on Netflix, but it didn’t reach the diverse audience that Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson. The second meeting also threatened to deliver another tactical contest after many fans criticized the pace of the first fight. With Canelo still ranked as one of boxing’s most exciting fighters, there were stronger options for a trade than revisiting a fight Crawford had already won.
“The rumors about Turki giving Terence Crawford a big purse against Canelo are not true,” Crawford told Ring Champs.
Asked if anyone ever promised him a fight after beating Canelo, Crawford made it clear that there were no negotiations.
Interviewer: “No one? No one has promised you a fight since the Canelo fight? Really?”
Crawford: “True.”
The management then asked if Alalshikh had tried to persuade him to return.
“We didn’t talk about no fighting. No, nothing,” Crawford said of Turki.
Crawford laughed as he described the conversations he had with people who continued to ask him to come back.
“Everybody says that. I get it from everybody. Everybody. And I hit them with, ‘Who am I fighting? What are we fighting for? What are we doing?’ And then they’re like, ‘Ah, I got the point,'” Crawford said.
Crawford had no shortage of opponents after beating Canelo. Jaron Ennis, Hamzah Sheeraz, Osleys Iglesias, David Benavidez, Sebastian Fundora and Vergil Ortiz Jr. all provided opportunities to strengthen his legacy. The problem was that none of these fights were likely to pay anything close to Canelo’s purse, and several were in serious danger of losing.
Those competitors are smaller, bigger, faster and more unpredictable than the defeated version of Canelo Crawford. Crawford had already endured a tough fight with Israel Madrimov, which showed that going up against naturally bigger fighters was not the norm. Back-to-back losses to Ennis, Benavidez, Fundora or Ortiz would damage Crawford’s retirement-protected legacy.
That makes it easy to understand his decision. He had already secured the biggest payday of his career, beating Canelo and walking away without giving the younger contenders a chance to use his name as a starting point. In Crawford’s view, the financial situation was gone, and the risks to his position remained strong.
Besides defeating Errol Spence Jr. and Canelo Alvarez, critics point out that most of Crawford’s book contains strong but non-star opposition (Postol, Gamboa, Porter, Brook). Madrimov’s fight showed a clear vulnerability against a strong, tough, modern junior middleweight belt.
In Alalshikh’s opinion, there was no reason to spend another big purse on the tournament. New opponents such as David Benavidez, Jaron Ennis or Hamzah Sheeraz provide new stories for Canelo, while Crawford retired after achieving his goal of becoming an undisputed three-division champion.
Last updated on 2026/07/23 at 4:31 PM
