Ring Observer Boxing by Scoop Malinowski
The promoters just staged the press conferences to announce Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford big fight later this year on September 13 in Las Vegas.
The two press conferences lacked any kind of real drama or hostility, more like two business partners reading off scripts to sell an event.
“I asked for Canelo because he’s a great fighter. He has fought [Miguel] Cotto, [Floyd] Mayweather, GGG [Gennady Golovkin]… all mega-fights. And this is my mega-fight, this is my moment, that’s why I asked to face Canelo,” said the very polite challenger Crawford.
“He’s one of the best boxers I’ll face in my career. I’m going to prepare for everything,” said the boss Alvarez. “He’s not going to beat me. I believe this fight will be in the boxing history books. I hope he doesn’t run, because people deserve to see a good fight. I hope he puts on a good fight. I know my abilities and I am very confident in them.”
Canelo is the boss and he found another “polite” opponent to play along with the gag. The franchise isn’t going to lose to a 39 year old with limited revenue generating capacity, especially a polite one.
Gosh, I miss the days when press conferences actually had psychological warfare and mind games, and some witty insults. You could see, feel and hear the tension and it hooked you to have to see the final showdown. Nobody did it better than Bernard Hopkins, Antonio Tarver, Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson, Oleksandr Usyk.
Canelo vs Crawford is off to an awful start. And nothing can save it. We know the script, Canelo wins a decision and then on to the next event which won’t be Benavidez, Beterbiev or Bivol because they aren’t “polite” enough for the boss.
Maybe boxing should hire some WWF scriptwriters to spice things up because this dreary cliche after cliche after cliche approach will doom the sport
