Terence “Bud” Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez go at it Saturday night in Vegas with all the super middleweight belts at stake.
He’s jumping two more weight classes, to 168 pounds, to face Canelo, the super middleweight champ and the biggest draw in boxing since Floyd Mayweather’s retirement.
Unlike Crawford, Canelo seemed to learn a lesson when things didn’t go so swell carrying so much weight.
He immediately dropped down to super middleweight for the last fight of his controversial but undeniably spectacular trilogy with the Gennadiy Golovkin.
Boxing, to put it mildly, could really use some of that from Canelo vs. Crawford.
This weekend, a major prize fight is taking place. As large a prize fight as possible in 2025, that is. On Saturday night in Vegas, Terence “Bud” Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez square off for the super middleweight titles. One of boxing’s most widely accepted adages, “Good big man beats good little man,” is being tested in this matchup between two of the sweetest scientists of their generation, which is worthy of a football stadium full of spectators and any fight fan’s attention due to its many intriguing plot lines.
Besides, this fight isn’t about anything. Crawford began fighting professionally in 2008 and will turn 38 this month. With 31 of those victories coming via knockout, he enters with a perfect 41-0 record. No one has ever even knocked him down. Additionally, he has refused to leave Omaha, Nebraska, his hometown. Crawford received little mainstream recognition for a more media-friendly burg until a July 2023 fight for the undisputed welterweight title against then-unbeaten and highly regarded Errol Spence. Crawford has always had beautiful fights, but this night he gave the best big-fight performance I’ve ever seen. Spence never seemed to be in Crawford’s class, even though both fighters weighed in at the 147-pound limit. Crawford was far faster and stronger than Spence, his presumed equal, and was also better at defense and counterpunching. Every blow that Crawford delivered had repercussions. His punch had unearthly oomph and accuracy. By the time referee Harvey Dock mercifully ended the fight with 30 seconds remaining in the ninth round, Crawford had advanced nine points on all scorecards after knocking Spence down three times. Watch the entire, intriguingly biased event here. Spence hasn’t engaged in combat since the beating, despite once being regarded as one of the world’s top pound-for-pound fighters.
However, Crawford has also been oddly quiet in the two years since that fight that changed his career. He only engaged in one fight after Spence, moving up a weight class to compete against Israil Madrimov for the WBO super welterweight title in August 2024, with a 154-pound weight limit. Additionally, for the first time in his career, Crawford appeared rather unimpressive at the new weight. Crawford’s punches appeared slower than they did as a welterweight against a skilled but unimpressive Madrimov. Although it was a close scorecard, Crawford won the bout by unanimous decision.
After Madrimov’s lackluster performance, Crawford chose to continue punching up rather than running back down to the welterweight division. To take on Canelo, the super middleweight champion and the biggest boxing attraction since Floyd Mayweather’s retirement, he is switching weight classes by two, to 168 pounds. In order to see how his much larger frame works for him, Crawford is fighting the fight without any warm-up fights at the new weight. For some time now, boxing fans and the sport’s Saudi power brokers have been demanding a Crawford-Canelo fight. With a career earnings that must be close to $1 billion, Canelo, a Mexican who ESPN has dubbed the most popular Latin athlete in the world, has demonstrated time and again that he can draw large crowds and media attention from any opponent. His legacy will undoubtedly benefit from the fight with Crawford, but he was never going to lose his size in order to get the fight. As a result, he offered Crawford a super-middleweight or nothing. Crawford is now 21 pounds heavier than he was just two fights ago, which will help him enter the highly anticipated “fight of the century.”. That is a significant leap.
The fact that Canelo is 35 years younger than Crawford and more than two years younger than Crawford may be the most astounding statistic in the tape’s story of this fight. Canelo has been in the public eye for decades, if it seems that way. His career record is 63-2-2 with 39 knockouts. Twelve years ago this week, he lost to Mayweather in his biggest fight to date. His first professional fight was back in October 2005. Hell, by then, he had already been in forty-three fights!
Canelo has also learned the importance of size in boxing. In 2022, he advanced to light heavyweight to face Dmitrii Bivol. At 175 pounds, Canelo was a huge favorite to win his first fight, but he lost to the largely unknown but larger Bivol by unanimous decision, giving him his first and only defeat since the Mayweather bout.
In contrast to Crawford, Canelo appeared to learn a lesson when carrying so much weight didn’t go as planned. For the final bout of his contentious but unquestionably amazing trilogy with Gennadiy Golovkin, he dropped straight down to super middleweight. Before that bout with Canelo in 2022, the legendary Triple G had never fought heavier than 160 pounds; the Mexican fighter, who by that time was accustomed to fighting with a larger frame, prevailed handily. After that fight, Golovkin announced his retirement with a 42-2-1 career record, which included two defeats and a draw in his rivalry bouts with Canelo.
Canelo has remained busy and at 168 pounds since the Golovkin victory. Earlier this year, he reportedly inked a $400 million multi-fight contract with Riyadh Season promoter Turki Al-Sheikh, who is boxing’s current sugar daddy. It was against William Scull in May 2025 that Canelo made his debut under the new contract. By that point, Canelo’s bout with Crawford had been confirmed. Canelo ran from Scull, a Cuban fighter based in Germany, for 12 rounds. Scull was so adamant about not fighting that it seemed the Saudi promoter had told him not to land any punches that would ruin the megafight.
That fight has finally arrived. Crawford’s victory at super middleweight could challenge the “big man > little man” tenet of the sport and even raise doubts about the usefulness of weight classes. Nonetheless, some commentators, such as Tim Bradley, who is currently the best commentator in the fight game, believe Crawford has a serious chance of unseating Canelo. Recollections of Crawford’s virtuoso defeat of Spence are still vivid. And Sugar Ray Leonard v. Crawford is precedent-setting for anyone seeking justification for believing in Crawford. One of the biggest and greatest fights in boxing history was the Marvelous Marvin Hagler fight in 1987.
Before challenging Hagler for the middleweight title, Leonard had never competed for a title higher than welterweight. Hagler, on the other hand, had only ever competed against opponents weighing 160 pounds and had never lost. It would have to be at middleweight if Leonard wanted to compete against the current ring king. Leonard’s footwork, hand speed, brains, chin, and a lot of heart were all necessary to overcome the power and bulk difference and win by split decision in a fight that lived up to the amazing hype. But barely: According to one judge’s scorecard, Leonard won by a mere round in this bout between two all-time greats. What a battle that was!
To put it mildly, boxing would benefit greatly from some of the lessons learned from Canelo vs. Crawford. Hopefully, it will deliver. I’m eagerly awaiting the opening bell.
