Promoter Kalle Sauerland became upset, reacting to being told that Canelo Alvarez had criticized Terence Crawford’s resume this week, saying he hadn’t fought any elite fighters during his long career.

Sauerland Defends Crawford’s Opponents

Kalle brought up Errol Spence’s name as one example of Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) having fought an elite fighter. Was Spence still elite after his 2019 car crash? Fans don’t think, and his performances after the car crash looked nothing like an elite fighter.

Crawford’s Best Wins Analyzed 

– Errol Spence

– Yuriorkis Gamboa

– Shawn Porter

– Viktor Postol

– Israil Madrimov

– Ricky Burns

Show me one elite-level fighter from that bunch? Spence and Porter were washed when Crawford fought them. Madrimov was nowhere near elite, and he came close to beating Crawford. Gamboa was fighting two divisions above his best weight class of featherweight when he lost to Crawford.

“I’m not even listening to that. He’s fought what’s been put in front of him, and there’s been some serious names on that,” said Kalle Sauerland to the Ring Magazine YouTube channel, reacting to Canelo Alvarez saying Terence Crawford has no elite names on his resume.

Errol Spence: Still Elite?

Sauerland fails to address the point Canelo made about Crawford. What he’s saying is Terence has floated through his entire 17-year career without fighting one elite fighter. You can’t call Errol Spence elite when Crawford fought him.

You can say that Spence was a former elite fighter, but he was no longer elite by that point. He’d been inactive for a year, dealing with weight problems from ballooning up going into the Crawford fight. He’d been badly injured in a car crash in 2019. Add to that the eye injury that required surgery.

“Spence is [an elite fighter]. I get that people are trying to build a narrative, but they are 1 and 2 elite for me,” said Sauerland.

What Defines an Elite Fighter?

You can’t call any fighter elite when they haven’t fought any elite-level fighters in their careers. It cheapens the label if you label a fighter elite when they’ve coasted through a career fighting strictly B-level opposition.

“I’m not buying that, ‘He hasn’t fought this one or that one.’ Let’s be real. This is a live fight, and they are a proper elite. We are talking the elite of the elite,” said Kalle.

It doesn’t matter that Kalle doesn’t want to hear Canelo and others point out the obvious. Crawford has not fought an elite-level fighter.