While remaining undefeated in his career, Terence Crawford has continued to seek out big challenges.
For everything that he has already accomplished, Crawford’s upcoming matchup with Canelo Alvarez may be the best example of this as he moves up to super middleweight.
‘Bud’ has already achieved so much while continuing to target big names and new weight classes, betting on himself and delivering wins each and every time.
In 2019, he recorded what is arguably his most controversial win, with Crawford beating Amir Khan following a low-blow shot that fans weren’t happy with.
Heading into this bout, he’d already shared the ring with a former opponent of Khan’s in a matchup that marked his first major statement win.
Photo by Al Bello/Getty Images for NetflixTerence Crawford stepped in and beat Breidis Prescott on three days notice in his first major win
After his dreams of competing at the Olympics came to an end, Terence Crawford turned professional in 2008 following an extensive amateur career.
He quickly started to build his record and rack up momentum by winning five fights in 2008, five fights in 2009, two fights in 2010, three fights in 2011, and four fights in 2012.
Heading into 2013 with a 19-0 record is when Crawford faced his first notable opponent that would allow him to start making some serious noise.
He was originally scheduled to face Robert Osiobe on March 30, but when Breidis Prescott’s opponent withdrew, Crawford was offered the opportunity to step in for WBA light welterweight champion Khabib Allakhverdiev on just three days’ notice.
Prescott had a 26-4 record at the time with the highlight of his career being a stunning upset win over Amir Khan in 2008 where he stopped the home fighter in Manchester in less than a minute.
Crawford’s first 10-round fight saw him walk away with a unanimous decision and $125,000.
Terence Crawford built on his win over Breidis Prescott by winning two eliminators that led to his first world title
After beating Prescott in March, Terence Crawford returned several months later where he defeated Alejandro Sanabria in what was expected to be a WBO lightweight title eliminator.
Despite stopping Sanabria in the sixth round, ‘Bud’ would then compete in another eliminator against Andrey Klimov the following October where once again, he emerged victorious.
Crawford had cemented his status as the next WBO lightweight title challenger and went on to face the champion, Ricky Burns, in March of 2014.
His first world title win came by way of unanimous decision in March of 2014 before he moved up to light welterweight two fights later.