LAS VEGAS – Terence Crawford clearly has heard enough about how he performed in his last fight.

Crawford wasn’t as dominant in his junior middleweight debut 13 months ago as he was throughout his remarkable run in the welterweight division. Israil Madrimov gave Crawford more trouble than any of 147-pound opponents in their 12-round fight for the WBA 154-pound title in August 2024 at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.

Madrimov lost a unanimous decision, but judges Benoit Roussel and Steve Weisfeld scored their fight close, 115-113 apiece for Crawford. Judge Fernando Villarreal scored one more round for Crawford, who won 116-112 on his card.

Crawford’s victory over Madrimov made him a world champion in a fourth weight class.

It also marked the end of his 11-fight knockout streak. Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) hadn’t gone the 12-round distance in nine years, not since his unanimous points defeat of Viktor Postol in their junior welterweight title unification fight in July 2016.

The competitive nature of Crawford’s only bout above the welterweight limit caused widespread doubt about his ability to be the same elite-level fighter at higher weights as he was when thriving at 135, 140 and 147 pounds.

That skepticism intensified following the announcement of Crawford’s super middleweight debut versus Canelo Alvarez (63-2-2, 39 KOs) on Saturday night at Allegiant Stadium.

The Omaha, Nebraska native has been asked countless times throughout this lengthy promotion about how he performed against Uzbekistan’s Madrimov (10-2-1, 7 KOs). It was one time too many, apparently, by the time Crawford spoke to a large group of reporters Wednesday at Fontainebleau Las Vegas.

“Listen, like I said before, we not gonna talk about the past,” Crawford said. “We gonna talk about the present and the future. His last fight wasn’t spectacular, either. So, one that’s talking about my last performance, let’s talk about his last performance. So, don’t do that on me, and say, ‘Oh, well, your last performance was this.’ We gotta talk about his last performance as well.”

Alvarez understandably endured scathing criticism following his last fight.

The Guadalajara native beat Cuba’s William Scull by unanimous decision May 3 at ANB Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, but Scull’s reluctance to engage made for an infamously boring bout.

Alvarez also failed to cut off the ring consistently, enabling the backtracking Scull to win rounds despite not landing many punches.

Judges Pablo Gonzalez (115-113) and Ron McNair (116-112) respectively scored five and four rounds for Scull (23-1, 9 KOs) while Danrex Tapsadan curiously gave Alvarez credit for winning 11 rounds (119-109).

CompuBox counted only 152 punch attempts for the inactive Alvarez, a mere 12.6 per round. Scull and Alvarez combined to throw just 445 punches, the lowest total for a 12-round fight in CompuBox’s 40-year history.

The heavily favored Alvarez scolded Scull for “running,” though more was expected of the undisputed super middleweight champion with a nine-figure payday for the Crawford fight hanging in the balance.

Four months later, Alvarez figures to be much more motivated to defeat Crawford in their 12-round fight for Alvarez’s Ring, IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO titles.

The Guadalajara native is a slight favorite to win a main event Neftlix will stream worldwide, with their undercard coverage scheduled to start at 9 p.m. ET (6 p.m. PT).