The Night Boxing Reached for Its Crown
By Mark F. Villanueva
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 20 Sep 2025
On a September night, hearts wax bolder, and the doubts voiced months ago on trembling throats about Crawford’s chances against Canelo begin to smooth, as the two champion boxers finally face off. At each punch landed, blocked, or missed—a jab to the pan, a plant to the ribcage—hearts grow courageous. Crawford took a power punch to the head and became spirited, shrugging off the dross to reveal precious gold beneath: the assurance to his audience that he is the special fighter he has long claimed to be, undisputed in two weight classes besides, and able to take it as well as he can dish it. There are glints and hints forming as answers and boxing insights, but Canelo Álvarez, stocky and cinnamon, a world champion since the age of twenty, is the boulder that blocks access to the treasure that would make Crawford’s a historic win.
As the two champions ride each other’s momentum up in the ring, becoming an entanglement of energy and muscle, of wit and nerve, the ancient sport of boxing staged its long-sought comeback. After a long history of being sold dearly to a narrow line of devoted fans for a premium price, shied away from the general public eye, hidden behind the paywall, it has now, on the Netflix platform, become accessible to anyone with a movie streaming subscription. Not necessarily a boxing fan, but a follower of, say, Peaky Blinders in New York, or a Filipino in Cebu or Cabadbaran absorbed in Ripley or some gritty drama, who might stumble upon the fight to become a lifetime fan. An unsuspecting fish, hooked.
Netflix reported that Canelo versus Crawford drew forty-one million viewers, making it the biggest audience ever for a men’s championship boxing match in the 21st century. The fight had been watched across the globe without people having to pay a special fee that once cost around a hundred dollars, with access codes scribbled on napkins at the table. To see Crawford buck Canelo with counterpunches, standing his ground, was no longer through coaxial cables, and the pay-per-view business model may now have its heyday in the rearview mirror. What’s special need no longer be exclusive—that is the fresh idea—thus inviting more to step in and appreciate. Terence Crawford applied the perfect game plan against Canelo Álvarez, and it was for all to see. But the bigger picture was this: the old sport of boxing taking a shot at the throne as the premier American sport it once held in the early nineteen hundreds, and soon to dominate headlines again, not just as spectacle, but as a cultural event.
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