Crawford Abandons Welterweight, Sets Sights On Canelo

Terence Crawford has vacated his WBA welterweight title, giving up the 147-lb division to focus on continuing his pursuit of a fight against Canelo Alvarez at 168.

Stanionis Ascends to WBA Welterweight Champion

Eimantas Stanionis has been elevated to the new WBA welterweight champion, which is good news for IBF champ Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis if he stays at 147 to become undisputed. However, given the news of Boots’ promoter Eddie Hearn having little luck negotiating with the champions at welterweight, it doesn’t look like we’ll see Boots-Stanionis happening at any point.

On Friday, Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) wrote to the World Boxing Association, letting them know he’s vacating his WBA 147-lb belt.

He still holds his WBA 154-lb belt, which he won off of Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. He hasn’t given that one up for some reason, perhaps secretly hoping that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh will offer him $20+ million for a unification fight against WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora.

That’s the most appealing fight for Crawford, 36, if he tries to become undisputed champion in a third weight class. If WBA 154-lb champion Crawford were to beat Fundora, he would only need to fight the winner of the clash between IBF 154-lb champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and Tim Tszyu for him to accomplish his goal of becoming undisputed champion in a third weight class.

The Canelo Dream

It’s risky for Crawford to go the undisputed route at 154, especially if he’s still holding out hopes of Turki delivering the Canelo retirement payday for him.

Fighting the 6’6″ Fundora and the winner of the Tszyu-Murtazaliev fight is no piece of cake for Crawford, who turns 37 on September 28th and will likely be 38 by the time he competes for the final belt. The Nebraska native is getting old, and his chances of beating Fundora or Tszyu are quite low now.

They saw his recent performance against Israil Madrimov and will use the flaws he showed to defeat him if he chooses to go the undisputed route. Promoter Eddie Hearn doesn’t think Crawford will. He knows what he would be up against and just wants the golden handshake retirement check against Canelo before retiring.

Crawford only fights once a year, so he should also vacate his WBA 154-lb title and move up to 168 now. If Crawford picks off an easy target like Christian Mbilli to build credibility, he could increase his chances of getting a fight against Canelo.