Defeating Terence Crawford has suddenly become vital to Canelo Alvarez’s already solid legacy

On Saturday, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez will step into the ring to face Terence Crawford in a fight previously considered little more than a pipe dream. Alvarez, the undisputed super middleweight champion who has won titles as high as light heavyweight, was simply too big for Crawford, who worked his way up from lightweight to become undisputed at junior welterweight and welterweight and only fought once at junior middleweight.

Now, just days out from the fight, Crawford is listed as a minuscule +132 underdog on BetRivers. Suddenly, the world appears to have come around on Crawford, and a fight once seen as laughable has become an important one for Alvarez’s legacy.

Alvarez’s future spot in the Hall of Fame is locked down. He has held heaps of world titles from 154 to 175 pounds and faced many of the greatest fighters of his era while building up a 63-2-2 record. But recent years have seen a drop in Alvarez’s place in the sport, not because of lack of success, but because of lack of high-level competition and effort.

Once one of the most fearsome fighters in the sport, Alvarez has gone seven fights without scoring a stoppage and has spent many of those recent fights seemingly content to coast to a win on the scorecards.

The most glaring example of Alvarez’s current approach to fights came in his most recent outing. Despite entering the ring as high as a -4500 favorite against the unheralded William Scull, a fighter Alvarez was expected to thrash in short order, Alvarez put on a literal all-time passive performance.

Alvarez and Scull combined to throw — not land, throw — 445 punches, the lowest number ever recorded by CompuBox in a 12-round fight. Alvarez threw just 152 punches in the fight, the second-lowest amount of any fighter in CompuBox history. There was only one round where either man landed double-digit punches.

Alvarez won the fight on the scorecards, regaining the IBF super middleweight title he’d been stripped of for not facing Scull earlier, and once again became undisputed champion.

But the Scull fight opened the door for a newfound belief that Crawford, even with only one junior middleweight fight, a bout in which he looked slightly less dynamic than he had at welterweight, could compete with — and even defeat — Alvarez.

In addition, many have accused Alvarez of ducking his most dangerous challengers in the past few years, resulting in David Benavidez and David Morrell both moving up to light heavyweight when it became clear Alvarez was never going to give them a crack at his world titles.

This all combines to tell the story of why Saturday’s fight is suddenly important to Alvarez’s legacy.

Yes, Alvarez has had a fantastic career. But leaving a lasting impression of dull performances, avoiding tough challenges and losing to a much smaller fighter would be a stain on how Alvarez is remembered in the long run.

Crawford is a fantastic fighter, to the point where he may be the best in the world on a pound-for-pound level. But Alvarez has all the physical advantages and against Israil Madrimov in his lone fight since 2023, Crawford’s power didn’t look as though it had fully transferred to junior middleweight, two divisions below where Saturday’s fight will take place.

Crawford has too much pride to be OK with excuses of why he lost, should that be the result in Las Vegas. But there will be plenty of ways to excuse such a result.

Those excuses don’t exist for Alvarez. He has to show up to fight and has to win. There’s no other way for one of the era’s greats to prevent a continued reevaluation of his place in the sport.