Terence Crawford In The Mix: Ward’s View On The “Faces Of Boxing”

Pod host Andre Ward says Terence Crawford is one of the three Faces of Boxing, along with Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis and Canelo Alvarez.

The Rise of the Entertainer: Ryan Garcia

It’s not even close when comparing the three in terms of the biggest PPV draw. It’s Canelo Alvarez by a considerable margin. In comparison, Crawford and Tank Davis are small fries and don’t draw near the buys’ level. You can argue that Ryan Garcia is more popular than Tank and Crawford combined.

With Ryan’s huge social media following and ability to connect with fans during interviews, he leaves Tank and Crawford behind. It doesn’t matter that Ryan has never won a world title. He’s still more popular than those guys. This shows you how boxing is now more about entertainment than winning trinket belts in watered-down divisions. Being a champion doesn’t mean anything now.

Ward says he’s not sure who the true Face of the sport is, but he feels that four-division world champion Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) should be mentioned along with Tank and Canelo. Ward fails to acknowledge that what a fighter has accomplished in the sport doesn’t matter.

PPV Numbers Matter

If they can’t sell seats outside their hometown and are not a PPV attraction, they can’t be the Face of Boxing. Unfortunately, Crawford isn’t a PPV draw and can’t sell outside of Omaha, Nebraska.

We saw that with Crawford’s fight against WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov on August 3rd at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. Even with His Excellency Turki Alalshikh stacking the undercard with outstanding fighters, the 22,000-seat stadium still didn’t sell.

If Crawford were the Face of the sport, that stadium would have sold out, and it would have brought in tons of PPV buys, especially with the undercard.

To be the top guy in boxing, you’ve got to be able to sell. Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez has consistently done that in the U.S. Gervonta Davis has never been on the level of Canelo or anywhere near that when it comes to PPV buys.

The Baltimore native Tank has only had one big PPV event in his 11-year career, against Ryan Garcia last year. It brought in 1.2 million buys, and you can argue the success was due to Ryan’s 12 million Instagram followers. Without Ryan, Tank would return to his usual low 200K numbers.

Tank Davis’ highest PPV fights

• Ryan Garcia: 1.2 million
• Frank Martin: 350K
• Rolando Romero: 275K

The Two-Headed Monster and a Third Contender: Crawford

“I struggle for one person to say they’re the Face of Boxing because typically when a person is that big, even when Floyd was the Face of Boxing, you let Floyd tell you he’s still the Face of Boxing [at 47],” said Andre Ward to their All the Smoke YouTube channel.

“It’s hard because you’re fighting one or two times a year. When it’s just you not fighting ten months out of the year, who is holding the sport up? You have different levels of notoriety, and these guys are holding up the sport, too. I would say the Face of Boxing is a two-headed monster right now.

Crawford’s Highest PPV Fights

• Errol Spence: 700K
• Amir Khan: 150K
• Shawn Porter: 135K

“I think it’s Gervonta Davis. You cannot deny what he’s done. You cannot deny what he generates, and you cannot deny his performances. You also cannot deny what Canelo Alvarez has done for a very long time.

Canelo Alvarez’s Highest PPV Fights

• Floyd Mayweather Jr: 2.2 million
• Gennadiy Golovkin I: 1.3 million
• Gennadiy Golovkin II: 1.1 million
• Miguel Cotto: 900K

“When I think of the Face of Boxing, I think about Canelo Alvarez, Gervonta Davis, but then you also can’t leave out Terence Crawford I think there are Faces of Boxing. I think it’s out of those three,” said Ward.