On Saturday night at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, super-middleweights Terence Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez delivered a captivating 12-round fight, with Crawford deemed a worthy winner at the end of it all. Here are 10 things we learned from both Crawford's performance and the event itself.
1) Size matters until it doesn’t
The accepted wisdom going into Saturday’s fight was that if both boxers, Crawford and Alvarez, were the same size and competed in the same weight class, picking a winner would have been a whole lot easier. Most in that instance would have simply picked Crawford, believing him to be the smoother technician and the cleverer fighter. Without the benefit of this parity, however, one had to balance Crawford’s boxing brilliance with the fact he was disadvantaged by moving up two weight divisions. We didn’t know, until we saw it, whether his brilliance would be enough to counteract Alvarez’s size and the difference in weight. But once we saw it, those who picked against Crawford were likely kicking themselves.
2) Crawford is the smartest of them all
If not the quickest, or the strongest, or the most powerful fighter in the world, perhaps now is the time to crown Terence Crawford the smartest. Because on Saturday in Las Vegas he managed to once again show ways to outthink an opponent, use their strengths against them, and keep out of harm’s way while still doing the better work in most rounds. He didn’t shock Canelo with his power, nor dazzle him with his speed. Instead, Crawford beat him with his brain; a brain that processes information and solves puzzles quicker than any other brain in the sport.
3) Canelo has a lot of respect for Crawford
The key line came after the fight when Alvarez was asked to compare Crawford to Floyd Mayweather and said that of the two Crawford was, in his opinion, the better fighter. However, there were signs even during Saturday’s fight that Alvarez was full of respect for Crawford. In fact, often Alvarez wore the demeanour of a man who appreciated the skills of the opponent standing in front of him and exhibited signs of this respect throughout. It might have been a nod, a shake of the head, or two raised eyebrows. Whatever it was, though, Canelo was, by his standards, surprisingly expressive on Saturday night.
4) Crawford might be near the end
It wasn’t Crawford’s idea to mention retirement in his post-fight interview. It was instead one of the many thoughts running through the head of Max Kellerman, working for Netflix, who brought up retirement to Crawford following his career-best win. It was then, and perhaps only then, that Crawford thought about it. He thought about what he had just achieved, the sheer magnitude of it, and he thought about the fact he was to soon turn 38. He said to Kellerman: “I don’t know. I’ve got to sit down with my team and talk about it.”
5) Canelo became annoyed with himself
Because he was poker-faced throughout much of the fight, any change in Alvarez’s demeanour or body language was bound to be revealing as the fight wore on. When, for example, he started looking away, walking away, and shaking his head in the final two rounds, one didn’t need a degree in psychology to interpret the signs. He was frustrated, that’s all. He was frustrated to have not figured Crawford out by that stage, he was frustrated to be on his way to his third professional loss, and he was frustrated, most of all, because he was unable to do all the things he used to do – instinctively, without thinking.
6) Crawford is the “GOAT”… according to Max Kellerman
Though he was once regarded as the straight-talking whippersnapper on HBO Boxing broadcasts, Kellerman’s recent return to the sport has given us an older, mellower, more agreeable version, one happy to bend the knee. We saw evidence of this switch at the pre-fight press conference, when towelling off Dana White following his latest shower, and Kellerman’s giddiness showed no signs of abating on fight night. He does, by all accounts, speak for us all, Kellerman. If he says something is great, it must be great. If he calls you the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) of this era, you must be the GOAT of this era. Yes, the Greatest of ALL TIME of this era. ALL TIME of THIS ERA. No wonder Crawford, the GOATOTE, looked more confused than proud.
7) It was a ratings success
It didn’t get anywhere near the number of eyeballs Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul attracted last year, but Crawford vs. Alvarez still did very well on Netflix, apparently. According to the streaming service, a total of 41 million people watched Saturday’s fight, which generated a live gate of over $47 million. Tyson vs. Paul, by the way, drew a live audience of 108 million; proof, if ever it was needed, that we are all doomed.
8) A rematch would be a tougher sell
The dynamics of Saturday’s fight were quite something. In one corner you had Alvarez, the biggest star in the sport, and in the other you had Crawford, arguably the best boxer in the sport. There was intrigue, too, on account of Crawford moving up two weight classes – thus handicapping himself somewhat – and Canelo appearing to be on the decline. In other words, until it unfolded and the mystery was solved, we didn’t know what we would get on Saturday night. We didn’t know how they would both shape up. We didn’t know what it would look like. We didn’t know who would win. Now, though, we do. We know what happens when these two share a ring and we think we know what would happen if they did it again.
9) Dana White and Turki Alalshikh played divorced parents at their son’s wedding
There they were sitting side by side, the ones responsible for making this thing happen. The one most responsible, Turki Alalshikh, raised his fists for the camera at one point and did a bit of shadowboxing, all the while Dana White, the king of UFC and power-slapping, dissociated and thought only about the money he was making to bite his tongue. Alongside them, meanwhile, were Jason Statham and an internet personality called Mr Beast, and the image of the four sitting together you should try to store and remember the next time you find yourself in the nosebleed seats. Because sometimes it’s better to be far away than too close for comfort. Even if, in Row Z, your view happens to be compromised, at least you can be yourself and not have to pretend. At least your cheeks won’t hurt from hours of fake smiling.
10) It was quite the spectacle
How nice it was to see a fight of genuine quality take place in a venue and town capable of doing it justice. On Saturday there were 70,000 fans packed inside the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and this element not only helped the atmosphere, but it also gave it a sense of grandeur it would have lacked had it been consigned to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia like the other super fights of 2025: Oleksandr Usyk vs. Tyson Fury and Dmitry Bivol vs. Artur Beterbiev.
