Many wondered how Terence “Bud” Crawford would fair against Canelo Alvarez in their star-studded, much hyped super fight at Alliegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Saturday night.
Some wondered whether Crawford, 37, could overcome Alvarez’s devastating power. Others questioned whether his speed would be hampered by his decision to move up two weight classes for the fight.
Those questions, and others, were answered soundly after Crawford’s 115-113, 115-113, 116-112 unanimous decision victory over Canelo (62-3-2).
The win gave Crawford (42-0-0, 31 KOs) Canelo’s undisputed super middleweight titles and put him in the record books as the first boxer to win undisputed titles in three different divisions (super lightweight, welterweight and super middleweight)
Most importantly, it showed boxing fans worldwide that Crawford is the best this generation has seen in the sport and, even more significantly, he’s one of the best fighters in boxing history, period.
“Canelo is an all-time great,” said Crawford after the fight. “He’s the last one. There’s no more Canelos. I’m the face of boxing now. I’m the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, like I’ve always been.”
That might sound arrogant, but if you know his career, it’s not.
Crawford has shown his talents in every fight, even during the frustrating days under Bob Arum and Top Rank, where, after moving up to welterweight, he was prohibited from fighting PBC’s roster of champions due to the bad blood between Arum and PBC head, Al Haymon.
“Bud” first gained national attention when, as the WBO lightweight champion, he took on an undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa in June of 2014 in front of his hometown crowd in Nebraska. Not many had heard of the kid from Omaha, but they did after that night as Crawford destroyed Gamboa, knocking him down three times before ending Gamboa’s night with a knockout in the ninth round.
He then moved up to super lightweight and cleaned that division out, becoming the undisputed champion in 2017 after KOing Julius Indongo in the third round.
A year later, he was on to the welterweight division where he KOed Jeff Horn to win the WBO title.
Crawford took down his welterweight opponents one by one, defending his belt six times before it was time for his first superfight against Errol Spence Jr in 2023. But their clash turned out to be a one-sided affair as Crawford dominated Spence, knocking him down four times, including the final TKO in the ninth round en route to becoming the undisputed welterweight champion.
He then moved up to 154 where he fought and defeated Israil Madrimov by unanimous decision to claim the WBO super welterweight title.
That’s when the murmurs about fighting Canelo gained traction, and after a year of the traditional politics of boxing taking place, the fight was finally set and the two met in front of over 70,000 fans on Saturday night.
Crawford fought southpaw the entire night, which frustrated Alvarez. The latter couldn’t land his traditional haymakers, and when he did hit Crawford, he simply took it and countered.
Crawford’s strategy worked to perfection as Canelo failed to develop any rhythm, and while there were back and forth exchanges, Crawford won the majority of those through masterful defense and a vicious left cross that found it’s mark numerous times.
At one point, he hit Canelo so hard that he became an instant meme.
In the ninth round, the two exchanged blows. While many of Canelo’s past opponents would retreat to avoid his punches, Crawford stood toe to toe with him, trading blow for blow while landing more punches than Canelo, his right jab blazing stinging jabs and his left delivering a slew of head rocking punches.
“He deserves all the credit,” said Canelo. “I tried my best tonight and I just could not figure out the style….he has everything.”
While Crawford was gracious in victory, event returning the belts to his defeated opponent, make no mistake about Crawford’s confidence or his belief in his talents.
“When I set my sights on doing something, and I know what I’m capable of, it’s not like a surprise to me. It’s a surprise to y’all because y’all didn’t believe me,” he said. “But for me, I knew I could do it and I believed that I could do it. I just needed the opportunity.”
On Saturday night, Crawford made the most of his opportunity and silenced any and every critic who questioned whether he was truly one of the best.
And the answer to that is yes.
The only things left for boxing fans to wonder is what if Terence Crawford had been released from the restrictive hands of Bob Arum and Top Rank sooner and would he take a call from Jake Paul.
While we will never know the answer to the first question, we hope that his answer to the second is a “no” as resounding as his historic win on Saturday night.
