It's such a joy to see boxing matches that aren't some contrived crossover match between some internet celebrity millionaire versus some washed up has been fighter or some fighter that doesn't even train properly for a fight that they are probably never meant to win in the first place. They just do it for the big money and yes, I'm looking at you Jake Paul.
Over the weekend a boxing match of epic proportions that broke the attendance record for the arena it was held in happened. And I was at my computer watching it on Netflix and I'm very happy that is the case for many fights these days and that pay-per-view is dying. $70 to watch a fight? hell no.
This isn't going to be a post about me being a boxing expert because the reality is the opposite of that. I had heard about Canelo and how he was a dominant fighter and a well-respected fighter with interesting roots and a long reign, but until this weekend I had never even heard of Crawford, let alone where he comes from (it's Nebraska.)
The thing I liked about this fight is that it was real boxing. These are guys that have done this their entire lives and are currently actively fighting. They aren't somebody that made a bunch of money playing videogames and doing stupid pranks on YouTube that then decided to try their hand at a combat sports an then rigged the bouts so that they could have a winning record.
These guys both came from nothing and worked their way up over the course of many years. As far as I know there wasn't a lot of time spent on promoting vis trash-talk and there was respect between the two of them when they were in the ring.
I don't have an opportunity to watch real boxing very often and a lot of this is because of the fact that I am not a true fan...but am becoming one ever since UFC started feeling more like WWE and also has too many events. Also, the troublesome people like "problem child" hijacking the sport is something that has me and many other fight fans really upset. It has become fashionable to have crossover boxing promotions for people that don't box. That's like having a skateboarding competition starring downhill skiers. Yeah, they are both pieces of metal/wood that you slide around on, but they are not at all related sports.
In this fight there was plenty of action and thankfully, almost no hugging. It wasn't until the very late rounds that any hugging to break up the action happened at all and that was just incredible. On my scorecard it was only round 8 where Crawford had it locked up on points and in my mind, he could have just cruised to a victory, but didn't. He kept the offense coming even though he was no doubt aware that Canelo at that point HAD TO go for a crazy KO punch but yet he fought them off. Much respect to Crawford for that.
Upon winning Crawford was very gracious in victory and congratulated his opponent for a successful and very long reign.
I was a bit confused as to why Dana White put the belt on Crawford and don't like the fact that he was there at all, let alone heavily involved. If we let Dana do to boxing what he has done to MMA, he might be able to ruin that as well. There will be so many boxing championships every other weekend that we will get sick of it and tune out.
Several MMA fighters wasted not time clout chasing with their callouts of Crawford and Crawford responded with class and humor saying "I don't even know who that is, I've never seen him fight" when referring to Ilia Topuria.
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Crawford's "hype man" over his shoulder is one of the most irritating people to be near a microphone, ever!
Crawford now has a crazy amount of belts and this is the 3rd weight category that he has been world champion in. I have only myself to blame for having never heard of him before now. He is also now the number 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world and leapfrogged Oleksandr Usyk with this victory over Canelo.
The post-fight in-ring interviews were annoying as they asked Canelo immediately about a rematch and I always hate when they do that.. Just let the guys rest for a minute would ya? Despite a loss Alvarez remains the 10th ranked PfP fighter in the world, and I think that is fair.