There are two things that I'm seeing here:
1. Crawford unifying all the belts at 154 lbs and again setting another boxing record for unifying 3 weight classes
2. Doesn't care about the belts anymore, and then just go for money fights as we all know that he is not getting any younger as well.
So we will see what his best move after winning and becoming 4 weight class champion.
The endgame for Crawford seems to be getting a big money fight against Canelo. Becoming undisputed at 154 would be great and all, but the names in the division aren’t really all that attractive. The Fundora vs. Tszyu PPV only got around 20,000 buys, according to Rick Glaser, who is not very reliable but I can’t imagine the actual numbers being any better.
If the Saudis are bankrolling his career, they will want to make the biggest fights possible, and at the moment that would be Crawford vs. Canelo.
And when there is money, for sure Canelo will say yes to it. Although as this point he said that he doesn't want to fight Crawford and then the Saudi's are somewhat on the fence with Canelo as we can see, the Saudi broker is more on Beterbiev and Bivol and other fighters.
But in the side of Crawford, yeah, he is looking for big money fights, he has tasted it already with his win against Spence and obviously his biggest paycheck after he bolted out of Top Rank. Although fighting Madrimov is just for the title, but who knows, Charlo or Fundora could be interesting for fight fans to watch.
At this point I think money is not the most important for Canelo as he can easily find an opponent that will ensure him big paycheck. However, based on my observation, he hasn't been fighting big names lately and as we can see, most of his recent wins are easy win. If he'll fight Crawford, that sure will bring a lot of money, but who would go down or go up? That's another thing as none of these two would fight not getting the advantage to win.
I think otherwise though, yeah he could still fight, but we really don't know for how long, and that's why he is looking for opponents that will make him big money. And that's why he is fighting less name, the risk is low but he will get the lion share obviously, it would be as high as 80/20 split in his favor and then PPV and live gates.
That's why he is being criticized for not fighting Benavidez as the risk is very high for him and his team. And chooses the likes of Munguia and Berlanga next.
If ever they will fight, Crawford will have to go up or 168 lbs, no way that Canelo will risk to go down to even a catch weight.