"LAS VEGAS -- Shortly after moving up in weight and eking out a win in the closest fight of his career, Terence Crawford -- then on the cusp of his 37th birthday -- was insisting on jumping another two divisions to fight the undisputed 168-pound champion, Canelo Alvarez. This was 13 months ago. Crawford was addressing an audience of one: his patron, the Saudi Arabian boxing financier, Turki Alalshikh."
"Even by boxing standards -- I use the term advisedly, as boxing has only few and dubious standards -- it seemed a semi-preposterous idea. Alalshikh shot him a look. "But the weight?" he said. Actually, it was more than just the weight. Both history and common sense favor not merely the naturally bigger man, but the younger one, and the so-called "A side." Paired with Canelo -- boxing's leading man, who had already generated almost half a billion dollars in purses -- Crawford was none of those things."
"Alalshikh proposed a couple of very lucrative, if more sensible, alternatives: Vergil Ortiz Jr. or Jaron "Boots" Ennis, each of them undefeated young stars with great ambition at 154 pounds. Crawford refused to entertain either option. "Boots is not a megafight," he said. "Vergil Ortiz is not a megafight. This is the tail end of my career. They're going to say, 'You were supposed to win.' I want Canelo Alvarez.""
Terence Crawford, nearing 37, demanded a jump two weight divisions to face undisputed 168-pound champion Canelo Alvarez, despite obvious physical and situational disadvantages. His patron, Saudi financier Turki Alalshikh, questioned the weight gap and suggested younger, undefeated alternatives like Vergil Ortiz Jr. and Jaron "Boots" Ennis as more sensible options. Crawford rejected those options, calling them not megafights and insisting the Canelo match was the only one he wanted at the tail end of his career. Canelo agreed to the bout for a reported massive purse, and the fight was scheduled at Allegiant Stadium.
Read at ESPN.com
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