Newly crowned undisputed welterweight champion Terence Crawford is receiving his flowers from peers far and wide.
Immediately after dominating Errol Spence Jr. with three knockdowns en route to a third-round stoppage win, fellow undisputed champion and super middleweight king Canelo Alvarez chimed in on “Bud’s” spectacular performance.
“Congrats Terence Crawford. You are a f—— great fighter – well deserved,” Alvarez wrote on Twitter. “I like Spence but … Crawford is too good for Spence. That’s why I picked him to win.”
Alvarez first backed Crawford last year when the fight was originally being negotiated. The Mexican star cited Crawford had better speed, intelligence, and power.
Throughout the promotion of the Crawford-Spence fight, Alvarez was regularly weaved into the storyline as a potential future foe for Spence.
Spence said a fight with Alvarez was one would that he would definitely take and he was open to the idea of a meeting anywhere between 165 and 168 pounds.
Alvarez was offered a fight with Spence last year for $55 million as part of a two-fight deal that would kick off with a contest with Jermall Charlo but Alvarez instead opted to fight and eventually lose to Dmitry Bivol.
Alvarez has since also fought in a trilogy match against Gennadiy Golovkin and John Ryder and scored unanimous decision wins in both contests.
Alvarez is now in the midst of preparing for a Sept. 30 fight against Jermell Charlo.
Charlo is the undisputed super welterweight champion and will be climbing up two weight divisions to face Alvarez at 168 pounds.
The matchup will mark the first time in the four-belt era that two active undisputed champions will be fighting each other.
Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist, writer, and broadcast reporter. He’s also a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and the MMA Journalists Association. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan, through email at manouk[dot]akopyan[at]gmail.com, or via www.ManoukAkopyan.com.