Terence Crawford eyes boxing immortality against Saúl Canelo Álvarez
Terence Crawford has never been to Australia before.
That might seem a little strange.
This is a man, after all, who was in tentative talks to fight Australian Tim Tszyu at one stage.
He is also the man who comprehensively out-fought Jeff Horn and took his WBO welterweight belt in 2018.
When Horn won that particular belt in a boilover victory against Manny Pacquiao at Lang Park, Crawford was keen to be in attendance as a future opponent for the winner.
At that stage of his career, Crawford was already a world title winner at lightweight and unified champion at light welterweight.
So what gives?
"Well, I always wanted to visit Australia," Crawford tells ABC Sport, a smile lighting up his face.
"Australia has been on my bucket list for a long time now.
"I remember when Jeff Horn fought Manny Pacquiao I was supposed to come here and witness, but Top Rank said that my visa didn't get granted because of parking tickets."
Seemingly, that's no longer an issue.
Crawford was speaking to ABC Sport on the Gold Coast, the first leg of his whistlestop tour of Australia with events in Sydney and Melbourne to come.
Just hours after touching down in the country for the first time, Crawford was amenable and relaxed as he settled down on a couch ahead of our interview, displaying no signs of jet lag.
In fact, the 37-year-old's relaxed, friendly demeanour is almost incongruous with what the world knows he is capable of in the ominous squared circle where he has made his name one to both admire and fear.
This is a man who has a perfect 41-0 record in the unforgiving glare of the boxing ring over a 17-year professional career. But, in so many ways, Crawford is a multi-faceted athlete, both in the ring and out.
Crawford's home town of Omaha, Nebraska, was not an easy place to grow up.
Crime, poverty and violence were daily issues young people had to face.
Many people still have to face them.
So, much in the same way he was saved from a troubled life by the peculiar sanctuary found within a boxing ring, he has provided a space for others in his home town to do the same.
"What I'm doing with B&B Sports Academy is definitely trying to save one life at a time," Crawford says, leaning forward such is the earnestness with which he tells his tale.
"You know, if I could save one [person], then I did my job.
"Now, you're not going to be able to save all of them. Once some individuals get to a certain age, they're going to find their way in life and do whatever they want to do.
"You, as a mentor, you can do it all, you can do everything that you can to help them stay on course and just give them talks and the guidance so that they would remember everything that you taught them along the way and do the right thing.
"But another thing is giving them the opportunity to experience things that they normally wouldn't be able to experience because of financial reasons and other things.
"So this thing that me and Brian McIntyre has been doing with B&B Boxing and B&B Sports Academy has been wonderful for the youth in the community as well."
Boxing's capacity to assist wayward youths is well documented, wresting lives from the brink of the abyss and pushing them into untold glory.
There are far more instances where boxers have not reached the heights of a world championship or an Olympic Games — and the issues fighters face after their career can be unspeakably devastating.
Yet, it is a journey that has brought such incredible success for Crawford and established him as one of the all-time greats.
When he stunningly took Errol Spence Junior apart across nine phenomenal rounds in 2023, Crawford became an undisputed world champion in a second-weight division.
He had, earlier in his career, beaten unified light welterweight champion Julius Indoingo in 2017 to claim all four straps at light welterweight too.
Being undisputed is not normal. In the four-belt era since 2008, just 11 men and 11 women have been so heralded.
Being undisputed across two weights is virtually unheard of.
Only Japanese sensation Naoya Inoue (bantamweight and super bantamweight) and Ukrainian talisman Oleksandr Usyk (cruiserweight and heavyweight) — aside from Crawford — have achieved it in men's boxing.
Legendary Irishwoman Katie Taylor (lightweight and light welterweight) and Claressa Shields (middleweight, light middleweight and heavyweight) of the USA have done so in the women's ring.
Few fighters in boxing history have been more skilled, more adaptable, in a ring than the man from Omaha, Nebraska.
Ever since he won his first world title, the WBO lightweight crown, in a tinderbox atmosphere in Glasgow in 2014 against Ricky Burns, right through to his light middleweight victory against Israil Madrimov last year, Crawford has transferred his power, his speed and his trickery through the weight classes.
But up next is Canelo Álvarez in a fight that could be one of the highest-earning pay-per-view fights in history and one of the most eagerly anticipated contests ever.
Like Crawford, Canelo is a four-weight world champion and is currently undisputed at super middleweight.
Crawford has made it his business to out-think and out-match all of his previous opponents, but Canelo poses an entirely different challenge. He has already beaten one of the 11 undisputed champions in his career, former light middleweight champ Jermell Charlo in 2023.
"It's important to me because it's a challenge, in two ways," Crawford says.
"It's a challenge because I'm fighting arguably one of the best Mexican fighters of all time and then it's a challenge because I'm moving up potentially three weight classes.
"I say three because I was only at 154 [pounds, light middleweight] for one fight."
"It's the opportunity to do something that no other men's fighter has done before and … to become a three-weight undisputed world champion."
"I want him at his best," Crawford says, confirming there's no rehydration clause in the contract, meaning Canelo may well be several kilos heavier when they meet in the ring.
"Because I don't want no excuses when I win.
"[If] I get him at his best and there's no stipulations or guidelines, then I get more credit than, you know, having all these rehydration clauses and all this stuff.
"He's the champion. I'm moving up to fight him in his division, so long as he makes weight, that's what it is."
And what would victory mean?
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