Terence Crawford has been retired for less than a year, but the pressure to lure him back into the ring keeps building. And now Saudi boxing chief Turki Alalshikh appears to be circling two specific blockbuster options.
Crawford stepped away last December as a five-division world champion, having become a three-weight undisputed king after moving up two divisions and beating Canelo Alvarez by unanimous decision at 168 pounds.
Before that jump in weight, he’d also dethroned Errol Spence Jr. for the undisputed welterweight championship, cementing his case as one of the sport’s modern greats.
Jaron Ennis has been widely floated as the most logical opponent if Crawford ever returns.
However, according to boxing insider Mike Coppinger, Alalshikh’s actual wishlist points elsewhere, specifically toward a Canelo rematch or a fight with Ryan Garcia, alongside other major fights Alalshikh is reportedly trying to make across the sport.
A Canelo rematch faces an obvious hurdle. Alvarez first has to get past WBC super-middleweight champion Christian Mbilli on October 31, and even a win there might not generate much appetite for a second Crawford fight given how the first one went.
The more commercially appealing option looks to be Garcia, who just scored a statement second-round knockout over Conor Benn to retain his WBC welterweight title.
Garcia has already called for a unification fight with WBA champion Teofimo Lopez, but he’s also previously expressed interest in testing himself against Crawford specifically.
