David Benavidez says he\u2019d like to see Terence Crawford return to 154 for big fights against Jaron \u2018Boots\u2019 Ennis and Vergil Ortiz Jr.<\/p>\n
Those would be risky fights for the 38-year-old Crawford, and ones that wouldn\u2019t pay the kind of money he earned in his \u2018Fight of the Century\u2019 against Canelo Alvarez on September 13, 2025.<\/p>\n
Chasing Canelo Money Again<\/p>\n
Crawford holds the undisputed super middleweight championship that he won from Canelo Alvarez by a 12-round unanimous decision. Those two are said to be in negotiations for a rematch in 2026. The payday that Crawford will get fighting Canelo again would be enormous, and far more than he\u2019d receive facing Ennis or Vergil Jr.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to see him go down to 154 and fight \u2018Boots.\u2019 That\u2019s a great fight, and fight Vergil Ortiz. Maybe even [Jermell] Charlo. That one that was champion at 154,\u201d said David Benavidez to Ring Magazine<\/a> about wanting to see Terence Crawford return to junior middleweight for big fights.<\/p>\n Terence has already ruled out a return to junior middleweight after vacating his WBA title on September 18, 2025. If he continues to fight after his potential rematch with Alvarez, it\u2019s believed he\u2019ll drop down to 160 to go after his sixth-division world title.<\/p>\n The middleweight champions are vulnerable, and Crawford would likely stand a better chance of beating one of them than he would \u2018Boots\u2019 Ennis or Ortiz Jr.<\/p>\n Mount Rushmore Dreams vs. His R\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/p>\n One big problem preventing Crawford from returning to 154 is that he wants to be among the four all-time greats on the Mount Rushmore of boxing. If he fights one of them, he\u2019s putting his chances of becoming an all-time great at risk. He would have to risk his hide returning to 154.<\/p>\n Terence already turned up his nose at the possibility of fighting David Benavidez, which would have strengthened his case to replace one of these four greats on Rushmore:<\/p>\n Sugar Ray Robinson What Crawford Must Do Next<\/p>\n For Crawford to be among those four, he would have to agree to fights against Ennis, Vergil Jr., and Benavidez because his resume is too barren of quality names for him to have a place on the Mount Rushmore of boxing. His refusal to fight Benavidez was unbecoming of an all-time great. Those talents would have never turned down a fight against a big name that they might lose to.<\/p>\n Chris Williams is a senior writer for Boxing News 24, covering the sport since 2013 and reporting ringside from major events worldwide. His coverage dives into both established champions and hungry prospects battling for recognition. Over the years, Chris has contributed to numerous leading boxing outlets, earning respect for his sharp analysis and insider perspective.<\/p>\n Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb – An Analyst’s Perspective<\/a> \u00bb Benavidez Dares Crawford to Drop to 154 for Boots and Vergil \u2014 and Stop Pretending He\u2019s Mount Rushmore Material<\/p>\n Last Updated on 11\/21\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Benavidez says he\u2019d like to see Terence Crawford return to 154 for big fights against Jaron \u2018Boots\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":277447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-277446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-boxing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/277447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nMuhammad Ali
\nHenry Armstrong
\nJoe Louis<\/p>\n