Canelo Alvarez has held back a degree of credit for Terence Crawford, which he will only give the American under one condition.
The pair squared off in a super-middleweight encounter last September, with Crawford moving up from 154lbs to claim a monumental unanimous decision victory.
In doing so, ‘Bud’ became a three-division undisputed champion against Canelo, who had unified all four major titles at 168lbs earlier that year.
The Mexican therefore entered their showdown as a slight favourite, having established himself at the weight with previous victories over the likes of Caleb Plant and Callum Smith.
A truly masterful performance, however, ultimately saw Crawford become a five-weight world champion, only to then announce his retirement in December.
Prior to confirming his exit from the sport, the unbeaten technician had reportedly been exploring a potential rematch with Canelo, whose next outing has since been slated for September of this year.
Not only that, but while extending his partnership with boxing powerbroker Turki Alalshikh, the 35-year-old is set to secure a world title shot in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
But despite looking forward to enhancing his legacy, Canelo has told Ring Magazine that, without being given the opportunity to exact his revenge, he cannot quite bring himself to give Crawford all the credit he deserves.
“I always give [Crawford] credit, but we need to run it back.
“After the fight I said, ‘We need to run back this fight’, because I don’t feel I really won and I need to make this fight happen again. [If the rematch happens], it’s going to be different.
“For him to deserve all the credit, he needs to give me the rematch. But he decided to retire, and we need to accept that and move forward.”
While an opponent is yet to be confirmed, it appears likely that Canelo will face a world champion at 168lbs later this year.
Potential options include Christian Mbilli and Jose Armando Resendiz, who respectively hold the WBC and WBA titles, while Crawford’s old IBF and WBO belts remain up for grabs.
