Canelo Alvarez has claimed that negotiations have begun over a rematch with Terence Crawford, in a surprising update as the Mexican looks ahead to 2026.
In September, Crawford outboxed and outpointed Canelo in a stunning display, taking the undisputed super-middleweight titles from the 35-year-old at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
That result kept Crawford, 38, unbeaten, as he became the first man in the modern era to be undisputed in three divisions. In fact, he went two weight classes higher than his previous maximum to face Canelo.
While the scorecards were close in September (115-113, 115-113, 116-112 in Crawford’s favour), they belied the comprehensive nature of the American’s victory.
As such, it is somewhat of a surprise to hear that Canelo is pursuing a rematch, for which there was no clause in his initial contract with Crawford.
Yet that is the report from TV Azteca, who spoke with the Mexican icon on Friday.
Per the broadcaster, Canelo’s priority for 2026 is a rematch with Crawford, with negotiations already under way.
Admittedly, Canelo is unbeaten in rematches, having defeated Miguel Vazquez on points in 2008 after achieving the same result in 2006, and having bettered his 2017 draw against Gennady Golovkin in both rematches; Canelo outpointed the Kazakh in 2018 and 2022.
However, the scoring of his second fight with Golovkin was controversial, and “GGG” was 40 years old at the time of their third bout. Furthermore, Canelo was deemed highly lucky not to have lost their first fight.
Crawford’s interest in a rematch with Canelo is currently unclear, although it is thought that “Bud” could pursue a world title in a sixth division next: namely middleweight.
As well as having been undisputed at super-middleweight, welterweight and super-lightweight, the American has held world titles at lightweight and super-welterweight. A world title at middleweight would complete a set of six divisions from 135lb to 168lb.
