Crawford owes Turki Alashichi a favor after Canelo’s gift

Terence Crawford owes the Turk a favor for choosing him as the guy to fight the faded Canelo Alvarez to dethrone him as the king of the 168-pound division.

Turki wanted Crawford (42-0, 31 KO) as his guy to fight the Mexican star and not David Benavidez, who US fans wanted to see fight Alvarez. No one asked for Canelo-Crawford. The fans wanted Canelo to fight these guys:

1. David Benavidez
2. Dmitry Bibul
3. Jaron Ennis

Crawford wasn’t even on the list. His fighting style never resonated with the larger public and was more favored by fans who enjoy Tom and Jerry fights.

The Netflix numbers tell the truth

As we have seen, it was not the ‘battle of the century’. It was boring, and Netflix’s viewing figures for 41 million viewers weren’t even half the 108 million Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson produced in 2024.

Turki’s recent comment at X on September 14th about whether Benavidez could still do 168 was taken as a big hint that he wanted to set up a fight between Crawford and him. “Can David Benavidez still make 168 pounds?”

It’s time to pay the Turk back in blood

Since that’s what Turki wants, doesn’t Crawford owe it to him to give him the fight he wants? I mean, he reportedly paid him $50 million for the Canelo fight, and it wasn’t the matchup that the American public or the world wanted.

Crawford should show his gratitude by facing Benavidez and provide an entertaining fight for him and the American fans. They just saw a boring fight between Canelo and Crawford that didn’t even match the entertainment of the undercard fight between Lester Martinez and Christian Mbilly.

Crawford called himself worthy of being among the top of the all-time greats, saying, “Now I’m on top of Mount Rushmore.”

Only Benavides can authenticate Crawford

If Terence wants to be at the top or one of the top three fighters of all time, he owes it to the Turk, himself and the fans to face the walking guillotine David Benavidez. That’s the only way he can be remembered as the greatest of all time because beating Canelo washed up and a car accident destroying Errol Spence isn’t good enough for Crawford to be on Mount Rushmore.

Chris Williams has covered boxing since 2010, bringing fans reliable analysis and insight from the league’s headline events.