Marquez on Canelo’s Next Opponent: “Who is William Scull?” Criticizes Crawford Matchup

Former four-division world champion Juan Manuel Marquez says Canelo Alvarez’s next opponent, William Scull, is a “nobody in the sport of boxing.”

Scull: A “Nobody”?

Marquez feels that Canelo needs to fight “good opponents,” and he does not support his decision to face IBF super middleweight champion Scull (23-0, 9 KOs) on May 3rd.

This is Canelo’s first bout of his four-fight deal with Turki Al-Sheikh, and it’s designed to set up the Terence Crawford clash on September 13th. The purpose of Canelo fighting the obscure 32-year-old Scull is to allow him to capture his IBF belt to become the undisputed champion at 168.

Then Canelo will have the four titles on the line when he faces Crawford. In other words, it creates fake, artificial interest in the Canelo-Crawford match. It’s all superficial. Adding another title to that matchup won’t manufacture more drama because fans see the fight as a money grab and retirement match for the aging 37-year-old Crawford.

The way to get fans excited about the fight would be for Turki to put Terence’s feet to the fire, instructing him that he must first prove himself at 168 in May or June against one of these fighters or else:

David Benavidez
Osleys Iglesias
David Morrell
Dmitry Bivol
Artur Beterbiev

Turki’s Tough Love Needed

Turki is paying Crawford a lot of money to fight Canelo, but he’s not getting the most out of it because the Nebraska native is unproven at 168, and he’s decided that he’s just going to wait until the September match. That looks bad, showing that Crawford is just looking for a payday. Turki should give Crawford some tough love, telling him to run the above mini-gauntlet to get the Canelo golden prize payday. If he refuses, Turki should wash his hands of Terence and say, ‘Good riddance.’

The hardcore boxing fans who know of Crawford will see this as a sad, pathetic, cowardly way to get a big retirement payday. Fans who only casually follow the sport don’t know how Crawford is, and they won’t want to see Canelo fight him because he’s not someone they’re interested in. He’s not Mexican, never fought at 168, he’s not well known, and he’s old. Crawford has three strikes against him to be used as an opponent for Canelo.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but William Scull is [a] nobody in the sport of boxing,” said Juan Manuel Marquez to ESNEWS when asked his view of Canelo Alvarez fighting William Scull next on May 3rd. ”

“Yeah, he’s an IBF champion. Do you know William Scull? I don’t know William Scull.

“It’ll be a good fight, but the difference is two divisions [apart] in the weight class, and I think it’s a dangerous fight for Terence Crawford,” said Marquez on what he thinks about Canelo defending against 154-pounder Terence Crawford on September 13th. “Maybe, yes. Maybe Canelo wins by knockout.

“I don’t like to see those types of fights. A YouTuber against a real boxer, I don’t like it,” said Marquez about his thoughts on Canelo’s scrapped plans to fight Jake Paul on May 3rd. “I think Jake Paul just wants to fight Canelo for money, and I don’t like it.”