After scaling two divisions to outclass Canelo Álvarez for the undisputed super-middleweight championship before a record crowd on Saturday night, Terence Crawford wasted no time calling it the defining performance of an already brilliant career.
“This is definitely a signature win,” Crawford told reporters afterward. “Moving up two weight classes, being the B-side, fighting a guy that’s been undefeated in the division, undisputed, taking all his titles, doing everything that I said I was going to do. Of course this means a lot.”
Asked when he knew he would beat Álvarez, the laconic Crawford didn’t miss a beat. “When he signed the contract,” he said, drawing laughter from the room. But the one-liners were accompanied by a deeper insistence that this result was no accident. “When I set my sights on doing something and I know what I’m capable of, it’s not like a surprise to me,” he said. “It’s a surprise to y’all, because y’all didn’t believe me. But for me, I knew I could do it. I just needed the opportunity.”
Crawford described the first few rounds as controlled rather than cautious. “I felt like I was in control,” he said. “I think he was trying to figure me out.” When Álvarez did get through with punches to the body, Crawford brushed them off. “He wasn’t hitting the body or anything. He was hitting my elbow because I was blocking it.”
The sixth round, when Crawford began to stand his ground and land sharp left hands, marked the moment he felt the balance shift. “Around like the sixth round, I felt like I needed to step it up a little more and get more control of the fight, because the fight was going like a seesaw effect,” he said. From there he grew more confident, even smiling at Canelo’s best shots in the late rounds.
Much of the buildup had focused on whether Crawford, who had fought at 147lb or below in all but one of his 41 previous fights before Saturday night, could handle Canelo’s power. He was dismissive. “I’ve been hit harder,” he said, citing Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who hurt him briefly in 2019. “[Kavaliauskas] hit harder than Canelo, to me, to be honest.”
When told that Álvarez appeared to fade in the later rounds, Crawford refused to diminish his opponent. “He was 1,000% prepared. I just think I was the better man today.”
Álvarez, for his part, offered no excuses after turning up for a press conference that most would have understood if he’d blown off. “We knew Crawford is a great fighter … I tried my best tonight, and I just couldn’t figure out the style. You need to take the loss and accept everything,” he said. Later he added, almost ruefully: “Sometimes you try and your body cannot go. That’s my frustration … my body just didn’t let me go anymore.”
The win made Crawford the first male boxer in the four-belt era to become undisputed in three divisions, an achievement previously matched only by Henry Armstrong in 1938. “It means a lot to me, because anybody can be a nobody,” Crawford said. “That’s all they say I’ve been fighting is nobodies. So what can they say now? Somebody tell me, what can you say now?”
Crawford insisted he had nothing but respect for Canelo. “He’s a great champion. He’s a strong competitor,” he said. “Like I said before, I’ve got nothing but respect for Canelo. I’m a big fan of Canelo and he fought like a champion today.” Álvarez even returned the compliment with a striking admission: “I think Crawford is way better than Floyd Mayweather.”
As for his own place in history, Crawford pushed back against the inevitable comparisons. “Floyd was the greatest in his era. I’m the greatest in my era. It ain’t no need to compare me to Floyd or Floyd to me.”
And then, the fighter who has built a career on being understated, finished with a reminder that the vindication was as much about the doubters as the believers. “The ones that doubted me, they know,” he said. “I don’t have to say I told you so or rub it in their face. This right here is I told you so.”
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