Crawford Rumored For March Return, Still Silent After Canelo

Terence Crawford still hasn’t given any hints about when he plans to return to the ring from his victory parade after his win over Canelo Alvarez.

Fans are questioning whether the Nebraska native will sit idle for a year as usual, reveling in his victory over the 35-year-old Mexican star on September 13, 2025. They’d like to see the newly crowned undisputed super middleweight champion Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) make a defense of his four belts before his 39th birthday in September 2026.

No Source, No Confirmation

“Crawford is targeting his own event in March,” said Chris Mannix on X, giving no source for his Terence Crawford news on Tuesday, November 4th. Since no course is offered for this information, we’ll place it in the rumor category.

If this information is accurate, it won’t be Canelo that Crawford fights because the Mexican star always fights on Cinco de Mayo weekend in May. Assuming Bud is holding out, waiting for Canelo to give him the magic ‘Yes’ word, there’s no chance he’ll fight in March and put that fight at risk.

Turki Won’t Fund a Tune-Up

It would be too quick if a turnaround for Crawford, and he might lose or get beaten up if he fights someone with talent. Let’s look at it this way: Turki Alalshikh isn’t going to pay Crawford $20-$50 million for a stay-busy fight in March. He would expect value. That would be risky for Crawford to give Turki what he wants if he chooses to fight in March, and then swing around to face Alvarez in a rematch in May 2026, potentially.

Iglesias & Mbilli Factor

At 168, Crawford has these two mandatory challengers:

Osleys Iglesias – IBF
Christian Mbilli – WBC

The problem with those two is that they have size, talent, and youth going for them. These are a form of pure krytonite for a small, aging Crawford, who barely beat Canelo with his low output style.

That approach wouldn’t work against Mbilli or Iglesias. So, that rules them out as options for Crawford’s next fight in 2026. If Terence is serious about wanting to be among the four all-time greats on the Mount Rushmore of boxing, fighting Mbilli or Iglesias could ruin that dream.

Legacy Play at Middleweight

Crawford mentioned last week that he’s keeping his eye on the winner of the December 6th middleweight unification fight between Janibek Alimkhanuly and Erislandy Lara. This would be a legacy play for Terence if he moves down to 160 to fight for his sixth division world title.

If Crawford beats the winner of the Janibek-Lara fight, he would hold the IBF, WBA, and WBO middleweight titles. With Turki Alalshikh’s involvement, he could come up with the money to encourage the last remaining belt-holder that Crawford would need, WBC middleweight champion Carlos Adames, to face him for the undisputed championship.

Veteran boxing columnist Graham Ilford brings dry humor and long-earned perspective to the sport.