Saturday’s Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford super fight marked a new experience for one of combat sports’ best voices.
Crawford challenged for Alvarez’s undisputed super middleweight crown Saturday night at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, as the pair headlined a high-profile event on Netflix.
The card was co-promoted by Dana White and Turki Alalshikh, marking the UFC president’s arrival into boxing ahead of the planned launch of Zuffa Boxing in 2026.
As part of his involvement, White looked to bring across a number of things from the UFC, including the organization’s longtime lead play-by-play commentator. Jon Anik called Alvarez vs Crawford alongside Max Kellerman and Andre Ward.
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Jon Anik says tape study takes longer for boxing than UFC after prepping for Canelo Alvarez vs Terence Crawford
Having anchored several UFC events while working for ESPN, Anik officially joined MMA’s leading promotion in 2011 and became its main commentator in 2017 following Mike Goldberg’s departure.
The Boston native has long been widely praised for his work, which helped net him the high-profile role on September 13. Saturday saw Anik return to boxing commentary for the first time in over a decade, having not regularly called fights in the ring since 2004.
With that in mind, the 47-year-old had a new experience preparing to call such a historic fight in the squared circle, and he revealed the biggest difference between boxing and UFC prep to The Schmo ahead of the Netflix event.
“It’s interesting. When you sit down to watch film, a lot of these fights (in boxing) take you an hour to ingest,” Anik said. “There aren’t a lot of finishes.
“So the film study is definitely prolonged. … I think the biggest challenge of the preparation was just that the 36-minute fights take an hour to ingest compared to a first-round (UFC) knockout.”
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Jon Anik led the call as Terence Crawford made history against Canelo Alvarez
Anik’s first boxing assignment in 15 years meant he was the voice of the broadcast as history was made inside Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.
By upsetting Alvarez, Crawford became the first male boxer in the four-belt era to win the undisputed championship in three weight divisions. That has left many assessing where he stands among the sport’s all-time greats.
Despite that, though, Crawford won’t be drawn into Floyd Mayweather comparisons and debate.
“Floyd Mayweather was the greatest in his era, I’m the greatest in my era. There ain’t no need to compare me to Floyd, or Floyd to me,” Crawford said during his post-fight press conference.