Why Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford matters more now

You heard it here first: Saul “Canelo” Alvarez vs. Terence “Bud” Crawford on Sept. 13 is The Fight to Save Boxing.

Do I actually believe that?

No. Not a bit.

Am I oozing with confidence that some promoter, some network hype-man, some mainstream media outlet, some clueless editor — someone, somewhere — is going to label it as such, and do I want to be able to plant my flag as having declared it so first?

Yes. Very much so.

Look, any discussion of the phrase “the fight to save boxing” must begin with a bow to perhaps the finest quote ever uttered by Larry Merchant: “Nothing will kill boxing, and nothing can save it.”

Larry was right, of course. Boxing, eternally inching away from the mainstream, will never disappear, no matter who protests its existence — and it will also always be deserving of some degree of protest. It’s a sport that punishes you for loving it, and you keep opening your heart to it anyway. It’s the sport that is occasionally more than any other sport can possibly be, yet it seems it’s never all that it could be.

In any case, there’s no saving it — and even if there was, there’s never been a singular fight that could accomplish that.

But that hasn’t prevented repeated “the fight to save boxing” declarations.

First it was Sports Illustrated, stooping so low as to — gasp! — put boxers on for the first time in nearly a decade, declaring Oscar De La Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather “The Fight to Save Boxing.”

Mayweather was in his prime, Manny Pacquiao was in his prime, Diego Corrales vs. Jose Luis Castillo had happened within the previous two years, the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez series was underway, we had Joe Calzaghe and Juan Manuel Marquez and Winky Wright and Bernard Hopkins and Miguel Cotto. Boxing didn’t need saving.

Maybe it needed a next mega-star to emerge with De La Hoya’s days dwindling. And it sure could’ve used a compelling heavyweight champion. But it didn’t need saving.

Mayweather vs. De La Hoya did its job. It attracted eyeballs, it made a handful of people a lot richer, and it helped propel the younger fighter to a new level.

I guess the cover line “The Fight to Temporarily, Marginally Aid Boxing” wouldn’t have sent magazines flying off the racks.

Boxing didn’t need saving for another eight years, apparently, but then Mayweather and Pacquiao agreed to fight each other, and we got “Can ‘fight of the century’ save boxing from a knockout?”

Ah yes, the done-to-death “fight of the century” label intermingling with boxing’s salvation.

It’s a good thing boxing didn’t actually need saving in 2015, because if it had, the relative dud that was Mayweather-Pacquiao would have shoveled dirt on it. There’s all the proof you need that nothing can kill boxing. Widespread problems ordering the pay-per-view, the largest PPV audience ever witnessing a fight with no memorable moments, a class-action lawsuit filed afterward by unhappy customers … and boxing just kept doing its thing in MayPac’s wake, and Mayweather sold nearly as many PPVs two years later against an opponent making his pro boxing debut.

Another eight years passed, and again we were due for a “fight to save boxing.” De La Hoya the fighter was long gone, so De La Hoya the promoter Gervonta “Tank” Davis vs. Ryan Garcia “the fight to save boxing.”

Casual fans’ ears perhaps perked up. Real fight fans simultaneously yawned and laughed.

Davis-Garcia was a highly attractive fight between unbeaten rising stars. That’s all. At least Mayweather-De La Hoya and Mayweather-Pacquiao were the respective biggest fights that could be made in the sport at the time. Davis-Garcia wasn’t even close to that designation.

With one calculated comment, De La Hoya had rendered the words “fight to save boxing” utterly meaningless. Oscar may as well have called up The Fonz and told him to put on his water skis.

But now Canelo vs. Crawford is signed, and the same sharks that were jumped two years ago are again circling. You can sense people dying to call this “the fight to save boxing.”

And I can see why they would.

This is a damned important fight in the ongoing effort to reverse the gradual shrinking of boxing’s audience. There actually is a lot on the line for the sport here. And the reason can be explained in a single word:

Netflix.

The instant that Turki Alalshikh confirmed that Alvarez vs. Crawford would be on Netflix, available to everyone already paying that monthly fee, and not on pay-per-view for an extra $80 or so, the stakes changed, and the pressure ratcheted up.

Canelo-Crawford will likely attract the largest live viewing audience for any fight this century not included on last November’s Jake Paul-Mike Tyson card.

At last quarterly count, Netflix reported having 89.6 million paid subscribers across the U.S. and Canada. The Paul-Tyson fight allegedly drew 108 million viewers worldwide and peaked at 65 million at once. Alvarez-Crawford won’t hit those numbers. But it could do something comparable to what the two NFL games that aired on Christmas Day did. Those each averaged over 30 million global viewers, according to Netflix.

The super middleweight championship bout in Vegas isn’t as big in the U.S. as a marquee NFL game, but if you count international Netflix viewers, it could certainly draw an audience as big or bigger than those football games.

The last time boxing reached tens of millions of viewers who normally don’t care about the sport, Mario Barrios and Abel Ramos delivered a thriller, Amanda Serrano and Katie Taylor fought their asses off, and Paul and Tyson left audiences empty and meditating on their own mortality.

So, wildly mixed results.

On Sept. 13, boxing gets another chance, and this time it has two of its finest active practitioners on display.

And that’s a formula that can go in any direction. Sometimes the superfight on paper becomes a classic in the ring, like Sugar Ray Leonard-Tommy Hearns I. Sometimes it’s all empty promises, like Felix Trinidad vs. De La Hoya. Sometimes those casual eyeballs get Taylor-Serrano. And sometimes they get Mayweather-Pacquiao.

With Alvarez and Crawford, there is very real chess-match potential. Hardcore fans understand that and can, to an extent, appreciate a tactical affair. Curious app-tapping bystanders are not so likely to embrace such a contest.

Canelo has never been a high-output fighter — that was the case even before a misguided alphabet group foisted William Scull upon us. Crawford, too, is a patient predator, often content to counterpunch.

Alvarez may fight like a man concerned about the embarrassment of missing shots against a smaller, faster foe. Crawford may fight like one concerned about the effect it would have on him if he, at last sight a junior middleweight, ate a flush shot from an entrenched super middleweight.

From an entertainment perspective, especially for an audience with an untrained boxing eye, there are a lot of ways this could go wrong.

Canelo-Crawford won’t kill boxing, and it won’t save boxing. But it legitimately could turn on or turn off millions of potential boxing fans.

This is not make or break for an entire sport. But it could prove an impactful inflection point.

And somebody is going to lose perspective and call it “the fight to save boxing.”

Maybe you’re thinking, “Nah, that’s an unoriginal label. Boxing wouldn’t go back to a well it’s already dipped into.”

Sure. Boxing’s marketing wizards would never repeat themselves. They would never take a and.

So, yeah, Canelo-Crawford will be The One Fight of the Century to Save Boxing.

At the very least, someone will call it “the fight to save boxing” and mean it.

And though we will scoff at them, thanks to the Netflix factor, we will understand where they’re coming from.

Eric Raskin is a veteran boxing journalist with nearly 30 years of experience covering the sport for such outlets as BoxingScene, ESPN, Grantland, Playboy, and The Ring (where he served as managing editor for seven years). He also co-hosted The HBO Boxing Podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin & Mulvaney, The Interim Champion Boxing Podcast with Raskin & Mulvaney, and Ring Theory. He has won three first-place writing awards from the BWAA, for his work with The Ring, Grantland, and HBO. Outside boxing, he is the senior editor of and the author of 2014’s. He can be reached on,, or, or via email at [email protected].