Terence Crawford says WBC/WBO Junior middleweight champion Sebastian Fundora was initially his target for his next fight, not WBA 154-lb champ Israil Madrimov.
Crawford states that someone in Fundora’s career decided that Errol Spence was the one they should fight next, not him. So, they decided to go in that direction, needing to find another champion at 154.
Crawford Expresses Bitterness
Although Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) says he’s not mad at Fundora (21-1-1, 13 KOs) for changing his mind about fighting him, he seems slightly bitter about it because that was the guy he wanted.
Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) is an excellent champion, but he’s less well-known in the U.S. than Fundora. Crawford’s fight against Madrimov on August 3rd will only have one title at stake, rather than two if he’d fought ‘The Towering Inferno’ on the night.
Fundora is coming off a big upset of WBO junior middleweight champion Tim Tszyu on March 30th in Las Vegas, a clash that received a lot of attention on Prime Video PPV at the T-Mobile Arena.
Crawford would have received far more publicity fighting the 6’6″ Fundora than he is against Madrimov, who speaks mainly through an interpretation and has broken English. Madrimov’s main mouthpiece has been his promoter, Eddie Hearn, who has put a cursory effort into talking up his chances against Crawford.
Hearn hasn’t gone all out with the promotional side for Madrimov as he has for his big-money fighter, Anthony Joshua.
“We wanted to go straight into a champion, being that we wanted to go into Fundora,” said Terence Crawford to All The Smoke YouTube channel when asked why he chose to fight WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov for his next fight on August 3rd.
“That’s who initially we were going to try and fight, but he said he wasn’t going to be able to fight this year, and we wanted the fight this year. So, we had to go to the next best option, and that’s Israil,” said Crawford.
It’s got to annoy Crawford that Fundora’s nose injury has healed up, and he’s chosen to fight Spence rather than him. From Fundora’s side, Spence has historically been the bigger draw than Crawford and the one doing successful PPV events.
Before Crawford fought Spence last year, his past attempts at PPV had bombed against Viktor Postol and Amir Khan. It’s a better fight for Fundora facing Spence than Crawford because he has an increased chance of winning.
If Crawford were in the same boat as Fundora and there was someone that he wasn’t confident at beating, it’s likely that he would make the same move. An example of that is Crawford choosing not to fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis, even though that matchup would likely pay considerably more than his clash against Madrimov.
“Fundora can’t say I’m who he wanted to fight when he chose Spence and relinquished his WBO title. If you want to fight the best, then you’re going to fight Terence Crawford because Terence Crawford beat the guy that you saying you want to beat,” said Terence.
Fundora’s Decision: A Business Move
Crawford needs to recognize that fighters like Fundora or anyone make decisions based on what’s good for them business-wise. They’re not going to take a fight against an unproven fighter who has only been involved in one successful PPV event in his career.
There’s the risk of losing to Crawford and the fight not doing good numbers because he’s not shown to be a big draw except when he fought Spence.
“You can say that financial-wise, Errol Spence may bring in more money. He doesn’t even know that for a fact,” said Crawford about Fundora. “He didn’t have a meeting with us and say, ‘This is what I want.’ He didn’t have a meeting with my handlers and say. No nothing.”
Fundora’s management likely examined Crawford’s past PPV and attendance numbers before he fought Spence and concluded that he was not worth the risk financially. Spence has been the more popular fighter throughout his career than Crawford, and he likely still remains a big draw.
“It was his managers. I don’t know if it was his father. They was just like, ‘Nah, we ain’t worried about Terence. We ain’t fighting Terence.’ I just think it’s politics. Politics play a big factor in boxing, and I think whoever is handling his [Fundora] career, we know it’s business,” said Crawford, explaining why Fundora is going in the direction of fighting Spence next rather than him.
Fundora’s management made the same decision that anyone would make in a similar situation if they were to pick the more proven commodity, Spence and Crawford.
“I’m not mad at him, and I’m not mad at Spence. I wish Spence much success in that fight. It’s going to be a tough fight, and I hope he comes out on top,” said Crawford.
Terence says he’s not mad, but he sure seems bitter about being passed over by Fundora. He should be happy that His Excellency Turki Alalshikh has chosen him for this event rather than someone else. It’s a winnable fight for Crawford.
If His Excellency wanted to give him the tough love, he would have told him, ‘You got to fight Boots Ennis, David Morrell, or David Benavidez to get the Canelo Alvarez golden parachute payday. Pick your poison.’
