During a recent video interview Terence Crawford speaks about not being able to secure the fight he was looking for against Canelo Alvarez. Crawford gives his reaction and points out the hypocrisy and excuses coming from Canelo — all of which he takes as a sign of respect.
“To be honest, that was my motivation fight,” Crawford said. “It’s crazy and it makes me laugh with all the antics that Canelo is doing and saying in the media and whatnot about the size and he won’t get no credit and all these types of things but Canelo been fighting smaller guys his whole career.
“Canelo been making his own catchweight for years. Canelo fought a smaller Mayweather, Canelo fought a smaller Amir Khan. He fought Jermell Charlo. And I’m pretty sure he didn’t make as much money with all those guys — except Mayweather — even Berlanga right now, that he will with me…he has all these excuses why he don’t want to make a fight with me.
“If it’s all about business then you’re doing good business…if I’m easy work you would take all that money that he’s offering you. But he want $200M for Benavidez and he want $150M to fight me. So that just lets me know right there that I’m a threat to him. I’m a threat to him, I’m a threat to his legacy, because it would be crazy for a guy who started at 135 to come all the way up to 168, your weight, no catchweight or none of that, and dethrone you.
“So he got that in the back of his head. ‘This guy, for one, he’s tough, for two he’s a boxer, he moves, he can punch, he can do it all. I can’t slip up and lose to this guy, then what would my fans think of me? What would my Mexican people think of me?’ So it’s a big risk for him like he said. He don’t get nothing out of it but he does get a lot out of it. None of those guys were pound-for-pound best fighter in the world that he fought when he was coming up in weight.
“So it just goes to show the level of respect. I look at it as respect that he gives me, I don’t look at it as disrespect. I look at it as the level of respect he thinks of me as a fighter.”