By Norm Frauenheim
A performance that reminds us why boxing was once called The Sweet Science screams for an encore.
In the days after Terence Crawford pulled a fading craft off the fringe and back onto center stage for 12 magnificent rounds in a masterful decision over Canelo Alvarez, there’s an inevitable clamor for more.
Fans and media are asking: Who’s next? A lot of fighters, some worthy and most not, are asking to be next. But there’s no immediate next on Crawford’s calendar, other than a birthday.
He’ll be 38 on Sept. 28, just 15 days after he celebrated a victory watched by more than a reported 41 million on Netflix and more than 70,000 at Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium last Saturday.
It’s an age – early middle-aged — that comes with questions. At 37, Crawford answered many with sustained movement and footwork not expected by a fighter with more than 40 bouts on his odometer.
Crawford never stopped in a tireless dance that confused Canelo, who saw Crawford in a different spot, with a different posture and at a different angle at almost every turn.
In the end, there was more than just confusion. It left Canelo, the younger man, without options and energy. He was exhausted. Crawford, the 35-year-old Canelo said, did everything.
Everything, other than knock him out.
Maybe it’s just coincidence, but Crawford patiently applied every element in his endlessly versatile skillset throughout. For one night, he managed to do all of what he does best. For most of his career, he was a finisher. We knew that, it’s there in his unbeaten record – 31 KOs in 42 wins.
Against Canelo, he had a chance to display even more.
In the days since the scorecards – 116-112, 115-113 (twice) were announced, the video of his comprehensive victory has been studied and re-studied for segments that were just missed.
Here’s classic: A double left hand.
First, it lands squarely between Canelo’s eyes. Canelo seems to look away. As he does, that same left hand drops down by an inch, maybe two, and then lands onto Canelo’s jaw, all delivered as Crawford ducks in and away.
It was a thing of beauty, art according to the book on The Sweet Science.
Canelo’s reaction says it all. Stunned, he looks back at Crawford in disbelief, as if to say: Where in this universe did that punch come from?
It was a moment – one of many, that secured Crawford’s place as the best in his generation. Today, he’s the consensus – if not unanimous — pound-for-pound champion, ahead of heavyweight Oleksandr Usyk and junior-featherweight Naoya Inoue, who delivered his own statement with a dominant decision over Murodjon Akhmadaliev in Japan just a few hours after Crawford’s triumph.
For Crawford, the history-making victory for a third undisputed title at three weights in his first bout at super-middle was a definitive counter to the critics who have questioned his record for years. Repeatedly, his credibility was undercut by doubt about the quality of his opposition.
Those doubts, perhaps, were reflected by the 115-113 scores. The 116-112 score was more accurate. On this scorecard, the margin grew – 116-112 in the arena to 117-111 the next day after watching the video.
Against Canelo, Crawford simply proved – round after round — he’s just been better than everybody else.
The dominance suggests that there’s more than that. Crawford has plenty of fight still within him.
But it also includes a question about what another fight or two might do to his legacy as an all-time great. There’s a pretty good argument that he has run out of opponents.
A rematch was mentioned. A second fight against Canelo would probably make money. But it’s hard to imagine a different result against the faded Canelo (63-3-2, 39 KOs), who has been fighting professionally since he was 15 years old and still had freckles. The popular Mexican is 68-fights old, and it’s beginning to show.
The other possibilities swirling around Crawford’s future are predictable.
There’s the emerging Jaron Ennis, Canelo’s sparring partner for Crawford.
There’s talk about a move down to middleweight – from 168 pounds to 160 – for another division title – his sixth.
There’s even David Benavidez, a former super-middleweight champion from Phoenix now training for a light-heavyweight title defense against Anthony Yarde in Nov. 22 in Riyadh.
Saudi Prince and promoter Turki Alalshikh teased the Benavidez possibility from his ringside seat late in Canelo-Crawford by asking on social media whether the 6-foot-2 Benavidez could still make 168.
Maybe, but at 28 and counting, Benavidez will only mature, which means more pounds and an even heavier division. In another year or two, he could be at cruiserweight, 200-pounds.
Crawford’s victory on one of boxing’s biggest stages in years includes prerogatives. To wit: He can do whatever he wants. But at what cost?
In a notable quote at the post-fight news conference in a tent outside of Allegiant, Canelo was asked to compare Crawford with Floyd Mayweather Jr., who beat him twelve years ago by decision in September, 2013.
“Crawford is way better,’’ Canelo said.
That one comment is a bigger victory for Crawford’s legacy than another title, say the middleweight belt held by 42-year-old Erislandy Lara.
It’s also a legacy, including an unbeaten record, maybe worth protecting against one of those young lions — Ennis, unbeaten at welterweight and seeking to move to junior-middle and/or a much bigger Benavidez.
Legacy or encore? This time, it’s a decision only Terence Crawford can make.
