Terence Crawford is currently in Australia, the pound-for-pound star having touched down yesterday. And the four-weight world champ was of course met by the Australian media on his arrival. “Bud,” who is a little under four months away from his huge fight with Canelo Alvarez, spoke on a number of subjects, one of them being how big he thinks his fight with Canelo could prove to be in terms of pay-per-view buys.
Recently, Canelo’s business manager Richard Schaefer caused something of a stir when he said that he believes the Canelo-Crawford fight will equal, or perhaps even surpass the monster PPV numbers the Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao fight generated back in 2015, the bout dubbed “The Fight of the Century” still holding the record at 4.6 million PPV buys.
Crawford told Fox Sports Australia that he agrees with Schaefer.
“I feel if it catches fire, gets the support of the fans it could definitely do the big numbers required to surpass the great Mayweather-Pacquiao fight,” Crawford said. “It just depends on how many people want to steal it with piracy (laughs).”
De La Hoya goes all in: “Call him the greatest ever”
It will be interesting to see how many fans buy the September fight, and of course how much it will cost a fight fan to watch the PPV. Canelo’s fights regularly do big numbers, but can the upcoming fight really get anywhere close to the staggering PPV numbers May/Pac pulled in?
In terms of if he manages to pull off the win, Oscar De La Hoya recently said that Crawford would have to go down as the greatest ever in the history of boxing.
“If Crawford can do it…..I mean, give this man the title of being the greatest ever,” De La Hoya said when speaking with ES News. “If he pulls it off he will be the messiah of fighters.”
Fans have quite naturally and understandably disagreed with De La Hoya, with them saying Oscar has gone way overboard here. Crawford, who is far too modest to claim he will become the greatest fighter ever if he beats Canelo, spoke about the man who he feels deserves the distinction.
Crawford stays grounded: “It’s Ali for me”
“Muhammad Ali,” Crawford said yesterday when asked who he ranks as the greatest in all of boxing. “I know a lot of people have got Sugar Ray Robinson but obviously I haven’t seen much of him, just because of how far back it was that he fought. I do know, however, that those who did see him fight say he’s the greatest of all time. But for me, it’s Muhammad Ali. Not only his success in the ring but what he stood for. Just his stance on human rights, standing up for his people…..there aren’t many people who would do that.”
In the opinion of the majority of fight fans, two big stats will remain in place after the Canelo-Crawford fight is in the books: the PPV record of 4.6 million buys set by May/Pac, and, depending on your view, Ali or Robinson as the greatest to ever do it.
De La Hoya, by the way, is not picking Crawford to defeat Canelo.
