Crawford vs Canelo super-fight ‘disregarded’ as Saudi adviser outlines plan for rest of 2024

Turki Al-Sheikh, the figure behind Saudi Arabia’s boxing takeover, does not ‘want’ the fight ‘anymore’

A super-fight between Terence Crawford and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez is unlikely to go ahead, after Saudi adviser Turki Al-Sheikh ‘disregarded’ the match-up.

Al-Sheikh, the figure behind Saudi Arabia’s boxing takeover, has frequently expressed a desire to pit pound-for-pound stars Crawford and Canelo against each other.

However, since Crawford became a four-weight champion by beating Israil Madrimov on Saturday, Al-Sheikh has decided against the mega-fight.

American Crawford, 36, beat Madrimov via unanimous decision to take the WBA super-welterweight title, in the main event of a Saudi-staged card in Los Angeles.

“Just wrapped up an important meeting now with my team, planning for the upcoming fights that we will make for 2024-2025,” Al-Sheikh tweeted.

“I decided to disregard the Canelo fight, as I don’t want it anymore. Instead, I will be focusing [on] the US market with bigger fights, especially for the legend Crawford.

“Additionally, I will support making fights for Boots [Jaron Ennis], [Devin] Haney, Shakur [Stevenson], [Vergil] Ortiz, [Jared] Anderson, [David] Benavidez, [William] Zepeda and more. Regarding Tim Tszyu, there’s something unclear with the communications from his team with our team, so I believe I will reconsider his situation.

“And for the rest of the world, definitely, I am focusing on Riyadh Season card, wembley edition 21st of September (AJ vs. Dubois).

“Depending on the results and the results of Riyadh Season’s opening card (Bivol vs. Beterbiev) on the 12th of October, I will build the card for the rematch of Fury vs. Usyk on the 21st of December and another big card on the first quarter of 2025. Stay tuned.”

Saturday’s event at the BMO Stadium in LA was the first Saudi card to be held abroad; the 21 September event at Wembley Stadium will be the second, as Anthony Joshua boxes Daniel Dubois for the IBF heavyweight title.

The next Riyadh Season events will take place in the Saudi city itself, as Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev clash to crown an undisputed light-heavyweight king on 12 October, before Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk fight again on 21 December – with the unified heavyweight titles on the line, seven months after Usyk won their first clash.