THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY
T he echo of the final bell had barely faded at Allegiant Stadium when a large segment of boxing fans began hailing Terence Crawford as the greatest fighter of all time. As their heads hit their pillows, their minds filled with visions of Crawford handing out terrific beatings to Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey in the same night. Such was the impressiveness of his performance against Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, himself a legendary figure who has long been boxing’s brightest light, and such is the almost childlike level of hero worship that infects many boxing observers. Crawford now sits where Vasiliy Lomachenko and Oleksandr Usyk have sat in recent times, like a caped figure high atop the Marvel or DC universe, a subject of pure wonder.
championship fight. The question now is whether that 41 million will come back for more. What did those Netflix viewers think of Crawford? Were they hyperventilating at the end of the fight, like Teddy Atlas (“That’s the sweet science!!!”), or were they simply happy to have seen a pretty good boxing match, a fine display of ring technique and a veteran performer finally getting his due? Well, if they weren’t amazed, they should’ve been. What Crawford did on September 13 in Las Vegas, jumping two weight classes to knock off the game’s biggest star, was a rare happening in boxing, and only a handful of events from the past can compare. Let’s look at some and see how Crawford’s win stacks up.
preferred the seemingly easier time that Crawford enjoyed against Alvarez. 2 \ Mickey Walker vs. Jack Sharkey, 1931 If your great-grandfather were still alive and cared to discuss such points, he might regale you with tales of Mickey Walker, a fighter from a century ago who did his best work at welterweight and middleweight but had the temerity to wage war in the heavyweight division. He notched a few wins over such fringe sluggers as Bearcat Wright and Johnny Risko, but the best was yet to come. On July 22, 1931, before a roaring audience of 25,000 at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn, Walker held perennial contender
record of 74-3-3, with wins over the best lightweights and welterweights of the era. By fight night he was an 8-5 betting favorite over Armstrong. Weighing in almost 14 pounds below the welterweight limit, Armstrong battered his way to a 15-round decision, so violently dominating Ross that he allegedly carried the fading champion for the last few rounds rather than cause him the embarrassment of a knockout. It was a performance for the ages, the lead sports story in all the New York papers, accompanied by gigantic photographs worthy of an epoch- making event. Frankly, with Time magazine calling it “one of the most brutal beatings in the history of the prize ring,” we have to
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1 \ Bob Fitzsimmons vs. James J. Corbett, 1897 Sorry to shove you into the time machine to discuss some ancient boxing lore, but this one merits a look. Fitzsimmons, the Cornishman, was a spindly-legged middleweight champion who was already considered old at 34. Having cleaned up his division and seeking greater rewards, he resigned as middleweight ruler and came up to challenge heavyweight champion James J. Corbett. Spotting “Gentleman Jim” 17 pounds or so and suffering under the scalding sun in Carson City, Fitzsimmons scored a 14th-round knockout and won the title. The fight was mostly remembered for the way Fitz ended it – with a wicked shot to the torso that became known as “the solar plexus punch.” The winning blow left Corbett on the canvas, gasping for air, unable to beat the 10 count. It was a major sporting event in its day, and the result was considered something of a surprise. It also elevated Fitzsimmons in the eyes of the public. How does it compare to Crawford’s win? The big difference is that Crawford dominated Alvarez, whereas Corbett had outboxed Fitzsimmons most of the way. One Nevada newspaper reported that Fitzsimmons, by the bout’s end, was “covered in blood from head to foot.” We’ll bet Fitz would’ve
By now, the reverence for Crawford finally matches the greatness he has shown in the ring time and again, a greatness that has sometimes been strangely undervalued. Though ESPN and the Boxing Writers Association of America recognized him as such in the distant past, he has never won The Ring’s Fighter of the Year Award, and his pay-per-view fights, aside from his 2023 bout with Errol Spence Jr., have been financial disappointments. In a world where Tyson Fury could lead audience singalongs or appear at press gatherings dressed as Batman, the mild-mannered Terence “Bud” Crawford seemed destined to remain a cultish figure. Until now, of course. Perhaps even more exciting than the news of Crawford’s win over Alvarez was the announcement from Netflix that 41.4 million viewers had seen the bout. Even if, as many will say, Netflix’s method of tracking viewers is unreliable, the fact that so many were watching is a good sign for the future. The 108 million global live views for the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight on Netflix last year was more about the public’s gullibility than an indication of boxing interest. The 41 million viewers for Alvarez-Crawford, however, might be viewed as a landmark of sorts, a milestone for the 21st century, an indicator that people are interested in a real
and future champion Jack Sharkey to a 15-round draw. Giving up nearly 30 pounds in weight and a few inches in height, lionhearted Mickey certainly won on the fans’ scorecard, nearly putting Sharkey down in the 11th and battling him hard throughout the contest. Yet Sharkey managed to cut Walker and make him bleed, which may have swung some rounds his way. As far as smaller fighters taking on bigger ones, few did so with the aplomb of Walker, the “Toy Bulldog.” But as great as Walker was in his heavyweight adventure against Sharkey, it was still a draw, not a win. And unlike Canelo, Sharkey wasn’t exactly the day’s big attraction. Walker, in fact, was probably the bigger star. 3 \ Henry Armstrong vs. Barney Ross, 1938 If any fight matched the magnitude of Crawford’s win over Alvarez, it may have happened on May 31, 1938, when featherweight champion Henry Armstrong challenged welterweight champion Barney Ross before 30,000 fans at Madison Square Garden’s Long Island Bowl. As beloved among American Jews as Alvarez is among Mexicans, Ross was every bit the living legend, entering the fight with a
say Armstrong put more hurt on Ross than Crawford laid on Alvarez. Additionally, by today’s breakdown of weight divisions, Armstrong had jumped four classes. 4 \ Michael Spinks vs. Larry Holmes, 1985 Light heavyweight champion Spinks leaped clear over the relatively new cruiserweight class to get at heavyweight champion Holmes in September 1985. By winning a 15-round decision and the Ring and IBF belts, Spinks made some history by becoming the first light heavyweight titlist to successfully challenge for the heavyweight championship, succeeding where others had failed. But while the fight was significant in its way, it falls short of Crawford’s win over Alvarez, mainly because it was a close contest. Spinks’ hunting-and-pecking method of winning rounds doesn’t compare to Crawford’s beautiful display of boxing. 5 \ Sugar Ray Leonard vs. Marvelous Marvin Hagler, 1987 To refresh your memories, Leonard had fought only once since undergoing retinal surgery in 1982, and most predicted Hagler would either kill him or leave him half-blind. Leonard,
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