Canelo-Crawford buildup includes Max Kellerman's welcome return
And tons more random thoughts: What Ennis should do; Teofimo can't get story straight; end of 140 era; what's up with Spence; what now for Top Rank; Keyshawn disaster; awful rankings; HOF ballot gripe
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I’ve enjoyed the first two news conferences for the Canelo Alvarez-Terence Crawford fight that will take place Sept. 13 and if you’re a boxing fan the fact that it is on Netflix free to subscribers and not on pay-per-view is a great thing — as long as Netflix works properly and is not beset by the overwhelming technical issues that impacted its first try at boxing last fall with the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight.
While there hasn’t been any serious tension or bad blood between Canelo and Crawford — no, I didn’t love seeing photos of them having a friendly dinner with Turki Alalshikh in Riyadh the night before they kicked off their three-city tour — they displayed enough machismo and/or bravado to keep me interested.
Clearly, they respect each other, as they should, and there was a tad of pushing and shoving at Sunday’s presser in New York, though it felt a little contrived. Regardless, it is still a fascinating fight between two greats winding down their careers but still very capable of big things. Alvarez has a chance to finish his career by overtaking Julio Cesar Chavez as the greatest Mexican fighter of all time if he hasn’t already. Crawford is still undefeated and looking to become three-division undisputed champion, which has never happened among men in the multi-belt era.
It was also interesting to see Dana White preside over the New York presser, his first time doing that for a boxing event. He sure knows how to sell a fight.
But the best part was when White introduced Max Kellerman and announced that he would be part of the broadcast team or the fight. That is terrific. Kellerman, who has been a friend for about 25 years, has been completely out of the public spotlight since his abrupt departure from ESPN two years ago.
But he stepped to the podium, gave an excellent perspective on the historic nature of the Canelo-Crawford pairing, and then proceeded to ask each fighter thoughtful questions like he had not missed a day behind the mic. To that, I say to Max: Welcome back.
And to make it even better, Alalshikh, who brought Jim Lampley back to ringside after a nearly seven-year absence to call the Times Square card on May 2, posted a photo on social media on Saturday night of Lampley and Kellerman together during their HBO days, a clear signal that they will team up once again for Canelo-Crawford. That is music to my ears.
