On Sep. 13, 2025, undefeated four weight division world champion Terrance “Bud” Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) and current WBA Jr. middleweight champion (154 lbs.) will move up two more weight divisions to challenge “the face of boxing,” Saul “Canelo” Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs). Alvarez is also a four weight division champion and the current undisputed super middleweight (168 lbs.) champion (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF).
The man largely responsible for the signing of this fight is Turki Al-Sheikh, a respected Saudi Arabian boxing promoter with deep pockets capable of giving fans “Big Fights” or “Super fights.”
The match between these two fighters is known in boxing as a “Super Fight,” which comes along every five to 10 years, in this writer’s estimation.
Who is Terrance Crawford? He is from Omaha, NE. After a very good amateur career, he fell short of making the 2008 Olympic Team so turned professional that same year in the lightweight division (135 lbs.). Five years later, Crawford became a world champion by defeating Ricky Burns in the Scot’s hometown of Glasgow via a unanimous decision. No one had dominated the lightweight division as Crawford has since the late great Pernell “Sweet Pea” Whitaker.
Looking for more challenges, Crawford moved up in weight to the junior welterweights (140 lbs.) division in 2015 and won the vacant WBO Jr. welterweight championship by defeating Thomas Dulorme with a 6th round TKO. A year later, Crawford became a unified champion by defeating the very capable Viktor Postol through a unanimous decision, thereby annexing the WBC’s version of the title.
mainstream fans will surely flock to the Allegiant Stadium on Sep. 13 to see two great fighters go head to head.
Crawford continued dominating the division which would set up a unification match for all four titles with fellow unified champion Julius Indongo, who held the WBA and IBF versions of the title. Crawford shockingly knocked out Indongo in three rounds. Crawford achieved what would be his first undisputed championship in the four belt era (WBA, WBC, WBO, IBF) in that division.
At that point, Crawford had “bigger fish to fry,” as the expression goes. He turned his eye to the lucrative welterweight division where boxing stars and welterweight champions such as Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, and Errol Spence all fought and were promoted by Premier Boxing Champions (PBC). All those fighters at one point held a version or multiple versions of the WBA, WBC, and IBF championships. Crawford at that time was promoted by Top Rank Promotions, which is PBC’s rival.
The one title-holder that Crawford could fight was WBO (147 lbs.) champion Jeff Horn. Crawford stopped Horn in spectacular fashion in nine rounds back in 2018.
On the other side of town at PBC, Errol Spence defeated all his fellow PBC fighters and unified the welterweight titles by 2022 to simultaneously hold the WBA, WBC, and IBF titles. Since 2018, Crawford had been lobbying for a fight with Spence. However, PBC and Top Rank would not quickly come to a financial agreement for the Crawford vs. Spence fight.
In 2021, Crawford fought former welterweight champion Shawn Porter, which was the last fight on his contract with Top Rank Promotions. Crawford could now have his representatives negotiate with PBC directly for an undisputed unification “Big fight” with Errol Spence, making the winner of that proposed fight the first four belt champion in the division.
By 2022 the first round of negotiations had failed between both sides. Crawford, not satisfied with the terms offered, opted to walk away from the negotiating table and took a fight against contender David Avanesyan and knocked him out in six rounds. After that fight, it was reported that Crawford and Spence spoke over the phone personally in an effort to resume negotiations to sign their proposed fight. Spence reportedly told his representatives to come to an agreement so he could fight Crawford.
The fight finally happened two years ago in July 2023. Crawford totally dominated Spence, scoring three knockdowns. The fight ended in a 9th round stoppage, which gave Crawford his second undisputed four belt championship.
Commercially, the fight did very well, selling a reported 700,000 Pay Per View (PPV) buys. Talks of a contractual rematch with Spence never materialized. Fans called for Crawford to move up two weight divisions to fight Canelo Alvarez.
Initially, both fighters were reluctant to embrace the idea of fighting each other. Crawford had stated that weight classes between fighters exist for a reason, and Canelo said he had everything to lose if he lost to the smaller Crawford. Canelo continued with his career and had four more fights since Crawford fought Spence, and his reluctance to fight changed to a yes, no doubt from the astronomical fight purse he will receive from Turki Al-Sheikh.
Since the Spence fight, Crawford captured another title by defeating Israil Madrimov for his WBA Jr. middle weight title (154 lbs.) via unanimous decision last August 2024. Crawford has been in the gym doing weight training to add mass to his 154 pound frame to compete with the 168 pound Canelo Alvarez.
What do we know about Canelo Alvarez? He became a professional fighter at the age of 15. He is now 35 years old, which means he is a 20 year veteran in the sport of boxing. In his 67 career fights, Canelo has beaten some of boxing’s best fighters, such as Shane Mosely, Austin Trout, Miguel Cotto, Erislandy Lara, and Gennady Golovkin.
His two losses come from Floyd Mayweather Jr. back in 2013 and former undisputed and now unified light heavyweight champion Dmitry Bivol back in 2022.
Canelo is arguably the “face of boxing” because he is a massive PPV draw. Canelo’s fights are guaranteed to sell, and networks or streaming platforms know they’ll make a profit. On top of that, Canelo also can fight, having the clout to pick and choose his opponents and still have good PPV sales.
Canelo has sold out arenas regardless of whom he fights. Fans are anxious to see Canelo take on undefeated WBC champion David “Mexican Monster” Benavidez, but at this point Canelo has rejected that fight for various reasons.
While Canelo vs. Benavidez would be an even bigger “Super Fight,” the general consensus is that hardcore fans also want a Canelo vs. Crawford bout, and mainstream fans will surely flock to the Allegiant Stadium on Sep. 13 to see two great fighters go head to head.
Contact Writer: RLuvsboxing@aol.com
