His Excellency Turki Alalshikh is not backing down from the comments he made about Canelo Alvarez. You see, things started a few days ago during the Terence Crawford vs. Israel Madrimov event in Los Angeles. Committed to making the biggest fights in the sport, the Saudi Advisor revealed he has reached out to Canelo’s team with an offer to fight Crawford in February next year. Soon afterward, he hopped on X to reveal that he was no longer interested in making that fight but refrained from revealing what really went down.

Following this, Canelo revealed during his recent press run that he didn’t like the way he was approached with the offer and things would happen the way he liked it, and not the other way around. This prompted His Excellency to spill the beans, where he criticized Canelo for only taking easy fights, and making unrealistic demands in an effort to avoid the fights. Fast forward to today, HE Turki Alalshikh doubled down on everything he said earlier about Canelo Alvarez.

HE Turki Alalshikh throws promoter under the bus

While attending the Virgil Ortiz Jr. vs. Serhii Bohachuk event last night, which was the first event in the new partnership between Riyadh Season and Golden Boy Promotions, a reporter from Fight Hub TV caught up with the Saudi Royal to take his thoughts on the entire situation and about his comments regarding Canelo on social media. 

This prompted His Excellency to stand behind everything he had said before, stating, “I said before, and this is my opinion, I [didn’t] start talking about these things, he [started].” Reminding the reporter about Canelo saying he respects Alalshikh, but doesn’t like how he does business, he added, “That’s why I said what I said. I mean it, if he [is a wise] guy he will understand the message.”

When the reporter reminded the Saudi advisor about Canelo’s statement, where he claimed he didn’t like how the approach was made and the tone, His Excellency revealed that he didn’t speak to Canelo directly. “If the promoter deals with him without respect, [that] is something between him and the promoter, not me,” His Excellency said. Now, it seems the potential Crawford vs. Canelo fight is truly in the gutters, so another former world champion has urged Crawford to look elsewhere.

Bernard Hopkins wants Crawford to forget about Canelo Alvarez

Bernard Hopkins has urged Terence Crawford to face Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis in what he calls a “super fight.” Speaking to Fight Hype, the co-owner of Golden Boy Promotions said, “I would want to make Crawford vs Boots Ennis in Philadelphia. Make that today because I believe any other fight past those divisions going up to Canelo is not realistic based on financial realistic or non-realistic. In this case non-realistic, but Crawford vs Boots Ennis is the fight to see. That’s a super fight. Trust me.”

Crawford, who recently won a title in his fourth weight class by defeating Israil Madrimov, had been expected to face Canelo Alvarez next. However, with the Canelo fight now unlikely, Crawford’s focus may shift to Ennis. Crawford has criticized Canelo for avoiding their matchup, suggesting that Canelo perceives him as a significant threat. Ennis, on the other hand, has always been open to fighting Crawford, just like Crawford wants Canelo. 

To put it simply, it’s highly unlikely Terence Crawford would ever get his wish granted, which is to face Canelo Alvarez after Canelo and His Excellency started openly beefing. However, he now has the opportunity to make another big fight against Jaron Ennis. But again, for that to happen, he has to come down to welterweight, which is something that Crawford probably won’t do. Do you think ‘Bud’ should move on?