Terence “Bud” Crawford once again rewrote boxing history Saturday night with his victory by unanimous decision over Canelo Alvarez, one of the top pound-for-pound boxers of this era. Crawford was the first male boxer in the four-belt era to become undisputed world champion at two weight classes, a feat now accomplished by Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk. He has now provided more separation between himself and the rest of the boxing world, and history, becoming the first to become undisputed world champion at three weight classes.
He did so in improbable fashion, moving up three weight classes to take on the champion Alvarez. Leading into and throughout much of the fight, the boxing world lauded Canelo’s strength and size, questioning Bud’s ability to hang in and handle the much bigger boxer’s power.
From the first bell, it was Bud who staggered Canelo with expertly placed combinations and strong jabs to the head. Over and over, round after round, Bud evaded Alvarez’s thundering attempts at a knockout blow and slipped his defense in counterpunches, leaving one of the world’s best boxers frustrated. Throughout the fight, Bud taunted Canelo. He wagged his tongue at him, smiled after slipping his shots, and shook his head when he would catch one, signaling he could in fact handle Canelo’s power. To no surprise, Terence Crawford put on a boxing clinic, and Canelo Alvarez had free admission.
In his post-fight interview, commentator Max Kellerman asked the champion the question the world wanted to know the answer to: Is this Crawford’s last fight? Not providing a solid answer, Bud noted “I don’t know [if this is the last fight of my career],” he said. “I’ve got to sit down with my team, and we’ll talk about it.”
If this was the last fight of Terence Crawford’s career, it was the perfect sendoff. This historic fight was representative of his entire career. As nearly every fight has gone, he outboxed his opponent from wire-to-wire both physically and strategically, impressing everyone watching that was not yet familiar with Terence “Bud” Crawford’s game. After being questioned his whole career – whether he was a draw, if he had personality, if he could beat the best-of-the-best – Terence Crawford once again proved every doubter wrong on his way to making boxing history.
He did it, as he always does, with “OMAHA” displayed proudly across the back of his trunks for the more than 70,000 fans in attendance and millions watching on Netflix. The pride of Omaha, Nebraska, permanently etched his name into boxing’s history books once again, doing something no man has ever done in the more than 100-year history of the sport.
Terence Crawford left no doubt that he is the best boxer of this era, and undeniably one of the best the sport has ever seen.
