Terence Crawford's breakout night might be a Canelo Alvarez preview

LAS VEGAS – A little more than 12 years ago, before the monstrous Allegiant Stadium was even a glint in a developer’s eye, one had to similarly imagine with all their might to project that this lean and determined eight-round fighter from Nebraska was going to also emerge from the desert sands as a behemoth.

Terence Crawford was 25 in March 2013, assigned to a non-televised undercard bout under an HBO main event pitting Brandon Rios versus Mike Alvarado.

That’s when fate intervened.

Readying for a world-title shot against 140lbs champion Khabib Allakhverdiev, Colombia’s Briedis Prescott learned the champion injured his elbow. A replacement was needed for the co-main event.

That sparked a thought in promoter Bob Arum, who for years has made a routine of arriving at his fight cards for the first bout. 

Months earlier, Arum had signed Crawford to what he called “a nothing deal,” but the veteran promoter had continually come away impressed by Crawford’s skill in those non-televised bouts fought before a few scattered fans.

Crawford was riding a string of four consecutive knockouts/stoppages in lightweight action.

“I had remembered seeing Crawford, and I suggested him as [the Allakhverdiev] replacement,” Arum recalled recently in a conversation with BoxingScene. 

Crawford’s stablemate, two-division champion Timothy Bradley Jnr, had also vouched for the youngster to Top Rank’s current Hall of Fame matchmakers Bruce Trampler and Brad Goodman.

“HBO bought into it,” Arum said.

But Crawford’s manager, Cameron Dunkin, did not. He assessed Crawford as a special talent, but there was risk by jumping right at Prescott on short notice.

Not only was Prescott a title fighter, he was five years removed from knocking out Amir Khan in the first round.

Top Rank’s Vice President of Boxing Operations Carl Moretti recalls the company brass huddling with Crawford and his trainer Brian “BoMac” McIntyre and informing him, “Cameron won’t let you take the fight.”

With the ever-confident McIntyre in range, Moretti recalls Crawford directing, “Give me the contract!”

For a $125,000 purse, he took the fight “on the spot,” Moretti said.

“I had never heard of Terence Crawford, had not seen him at all,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Jim Lampley said before meeting Crawford for a brief HBO fighter-meeting session.

“He was a confident, composed guy and was just getting his feet wet in regard to what to say. Honestly, we didn’t expect anything but for him to be a steppingstone fight for Prescott.”

Crawford, Lampley recalled, was productive making the “southpaw switch” that has propelled him as a double-handed force who became one of the fiercest finishers the sport has known during an era in which he has stood as the No. 1-ranked pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

And even though he didn’t stop Prescott, he “cleaned him out,” Lampley said.

“His self-possession and his mentality,” most impressed. “I think he knew he was seen by the opponent and many watching as the underdog … Cameron was very honest with his fighters. I’m sure he told Terence that many didn’t think he had a chance.”

Crawford cruised to victory, sweeping all 10 rounds on judge Burt A. Clements’ card and gaining 99-91 and 97-93 cards from the others.

“That started his ascent,” Arum said.

From then on, Crawford was an HBO mainstay, venturing to Glasgow, Scotland, nearly one year later to capture his first belt, the WBO lightweight strap, before emphasizing his ambidextrous skill in dismantling Cuba’s Yuriorkis Gamboa en route to standing as an undisputed champion at 140lbs in 2017 and at welterweight in 2023 by destroying then-three-belt-champion Errol Spence Jnr.

Crawford moved up to win a 154lbs title last year, and now he makes his boldest attempt of all by going up two more weight classes, attempting to join Henry Armstrong as a three-division undisputed champion.

“There’s zero logic to picking a guy who has fundamentally put on 21 pounds of weight in the past year to beat a guy who has fought much of his career at that weight or near it … it’s damn near impossible to hurt Canelo,” Lampley said. “The only logic is Terence Crawford is Terence Crawford.

“He doesn’t know how to lose. He has overwhelming confidence in himself and believes he can dictate the terms of any fight. And somewhere in his heart, he believes he can dictate the terms of this one.

“Regardless of logic, Terence is not addicted to logic in evaluating his own career prospects. He believes in Terence.”

It’s a mindset that has served him well for more than a decade now, since that night across The Strip at Mandalay Bay versus Prescott.

Saturday night, where the NFL stadium has risen to accommodate the Raiders, another unapologetic, ruthless fighter enters the main-event ring seeking to take away both the Mexican champion’s belts and his reputation as the greatest fighter of his era.

One of those who witnessed Crawford that night against Prescott is Lampley’s former HBO analyst partner Larry Merchant.

When Lampley recently asked Merchant who will win, the now-retired sage answered, “Does Sugar Ray Leonard have an official win over Marvelous Marvin Hagler? Well, if Ray Leonard can get an official win over Marvin Hagler, why can’t Terence Crawford defeat Canelo Alvarez?”

Now that he knows Crawford so well, Lampley says the method of upset must be the same.

“Get in, land the damaging combination and get out. Don’t stay in the pocket so long that you take an unwarranted risk,” Lampley said. “If you can do that over and over and over, then you can do what Leonard did to Hagler. Great fight.

“Can Terence find a way to win? I don’t rule that out at all.”

Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.