Crawford Prioritizes Canelo Over Fundora, Says Promoter

WBC/WBO junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora’s promoter, Sampson Lewkowicz, says he doesn’t expect to Terence Crawford to show interest in taking the WBO-ordered fight against Fundora until after he exhausts his efforts of landing the money fight against Canelo Alvarez.

The Mexican star Canelo didn’t rule out a fight with Crawford happening, but he would need to be well-paid to do so because it’s a match he wants. Canelo gains nothing legacy-wise from fighting him.

Lewkowcicz told Boxingscene that he thinks Crawford will wait until Canelo defends his unified super middleweight titles against Edgar Berlanga on September 14th before deciding whether to look in Fundora’s direction. He believes that Crawford just wants the money, not the legacy, and he will try to get the Canelo fight.

Fundora’s Confidence Against an Aging Crawford

If the fight against Canelo doesn’t happen, then a match against WBC and WBO 154-lb champion Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) could happen. Lewkowicz is confident that the 6’6″ Fundora will beat the 37-year-old Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs), with how he looked in his debut at 154 against WBA champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd. He notes that Crawford barely won the fight.

Fundora is a much more difficult opponent than Madrimov, especially on offense, and Crawford will get hit more than he ever has in his career. He might not hold up long under the punishment.

It’s unclear if the Saudis will be interested in financing Crawford’s fight against Fundora, as his match against Madrimov failed to bring in good numbers on PPV.

Crawford’s not popular enough to pour money into him fighting Fundora or anyone. He doesn’t have the reach with casual boxing fans unless he’s fighting a popular fighter that can bring in the fans like we saw when Terence hitched a ride a few years ago when he fought the star, Errol Spence.