Terence Crawford said he is embracing the magnitude of his upcoming showdown with Canelo Alvarez on Saturday in Las Vegas, calling it the biggest fight in boxing in “probably a decade” as he bids to become the first male boxer to be undisputed in three weight classes.<\/p>\n
Crawford, who faces Alvarez for the super middleweight title, said his preparation has remained consistent despite having to move up two weight classes to challenge the Mexican superstar in a bout that will be streamed live on Netflix. <\/p>\n
“Same song, just a little higher tone,” he told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The 37-year-old American praised Alvarez’s experience while backing his own tools to carry the night. <\/p>\n
“Canelo is very experienced. I’m very experienced as well. You got two experienced fighters going head-to-head. The best man is going to win,” he said, adding that his footwork and speed could be decisive. <\/p>\n
Crawford dismissed concerns about a potential pro-Alvarez crowd at the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium, which is home to the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. <\/p>\n
The fight falls on Mexican Independence Day weekend and the Nevada city has a large and growing Mexican population. <\/p>\n
“I’ve been in hostile territory before. This is nothing new for me,” he said. <\/p>\n
“They can’t fight for him.”<\/p>\n
Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) said beating Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) would cap a journey that began in the rough neighborhoods of Omaha, Nebraska, and elevated him to a place in boxing history as the only male fighter to become undisputed champion in two weight classes.<\/p>\n
“It definitely would be the highlight of my career, the biggest win of my career by far,” he said.<\/p>\n
Crawford spoke respectfully of the Mexican champion. <\/p>\n
“I admire his whole career. He and his team have done a tremendous job,” he said, adding that after he wins the battle, he will wish Alvarez “nothing but the best.”<\/p>\n
While calling Alvarez his toughest test “on paper,” Crawford said the true measure would come on fight night. He cited family, legacy, and history as his motivations. <\/p>\n
“It’s the daughters, it’s legacy, it’s becoming the first male boxer to become undisputed in three weight classes. It’s all of it.”<\/p>\n
Crawford said his fight week buildup would consist of “media and chill” and predicted how the bout would end: “Victory. A good victory.” <\/p>\n
He added that he hopes the aftermath cements his place in the sport. <\/p>\n
“They’re going to be saying that I’m the greatest of this generation and this era.” REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Terence Crawford said he is embracing the magnitude of his upcoming showdown with Canelo Alvarez on Saturday in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-131548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boxing","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}