Last Thursday, the internet broke as Devin Haney, who is in camp for the biggest fight of his career against George Kambosos Jnr, in which the winner will claim all four world title belts in the lightweight division, saw an unexpected visitor, in one of the best welterweights in the modern era, Terence Crawford, prior to Haney returning to Las Vegas to start his intensive sparring for his career-defining fight. All of this happening at Victor Conte’s SNAC Gym in the Bay Area.

The initial posts came from Lance Pugmire on Twitter (below).

Without any prior knowledge, an educated guess would be this served two purposes for Crawford, 1) to see Haney in person and train next to a high-level professional like himself, and 2) to see how the world-class SNAC gym is, as well as what the strength and conditioning program, along with track works would be like, as on Friday Crawford seemed to train alongside Haney and Amari Jones for a morning workout.

Obviously, Crawford vs Errol Spence Jr. has to happen. Both fighters careers will be ridiculed and shunned, and it will simply come down to which promoter, marketing, or fighter you identify with – as we would essentially have two fighters with an Aaron Pryor-like legacy. With the 2023-2024 economic recession that is predicted, money has to be made – and honestly, the only fight that makes sense for either is this bout.

Crawford working with Conte and SNAC shows that he is now looking at trying to add to his camp for the biggest moment of his career, as whether anyone wants to believe it or not – neither Spence nor Crawford will easily beat the other. The fight will be a living hell for each, even if the fight is a quick knockout. The two will spend months in the gym, more than likely training to the brink of exhaustion to lay it all on the line for the way they will be remembered in a one-sentence blurb.

Seeing Crawford looking beyond his own winning formula, shows just how big the moment is.

Errol Spence is Crawford’s Moby Dick, which is a book about a captain’s obsession with a whale named Moby Dick, who killed everyone except one man on a boat at sea, and that man seeks revenge. Though Spence has done nothing to Crawford, Crawford seemingly hears the fans who mock his resume and wants to make a statement to show that he is a generational fighter, for those who doubt him. Even if he doesn’t say that I just sort of see it in his performance against Shawn Porter, as well the knockout streak he is currently on, that seemingly gets no credit.

This also wouldn’t be the first time Spence has fought a fighter that was sponsored by and trained with SNAC System, as Mikey Garcia spent most of his camp in the Bay Area working with SNAC prior to his fight. The results didn’t go Garcia’s way, but he also was smaller than Spence, which a detractor could point to Crawford being a lightweight, super lightweight, and now welterweight champion, as opposed to Spence who had been a welterweight his whole career. Yet, Crawford’s strength is mythic in terms of gym folklore.

This comes with Victor Conte’s SNAC System picking up a slew of new fighters including Shakur Stevenson, Terence Crawford, Jared Anderson, Jaron “Boots” Ennis, as well as Devin Haney emerging as one of the blue-chip fighters they invested in very early on. With Conte, the former head of BALCO, who severed his time, came home wealthy, and only got into boxing through a chance meeting with a fighter at a bank, this will mark roughly his tenth year in boxing, and he might just have his most high-profile stable, yet. As most of the fighters he is working with might just be at the forefront of being the best fighters in their respective divisions.

Let’s also not forgot, that Crawford is a fantastic wrestler, and an all-around athlete, so adding sports science to his team – seemingly should improve his performance. The news is interesting to me for many reasons, but mostly, because boxers often don’t invest in their career at all, they typically buy superficial stuff, create financial ruin, and struggle with all sides of the business of boxing – or business in general outside of spending money. Crawford actually making a change, especially after Spence just hired a strength and conditioning coach, ups the stakes for me. Crawford is doing what a lot of fighters are not doing – going for legacy.

So what do I really think?

Crawford can fight, and Victor Conte knows sports nutrition. It never hurts to surround yourself with like-minded successful people and to learn about new things that can benefit your career. For me, with how boxing is mostly, the same ol’ same, it is nice to see a change, at least, and I look forward to the future – as well as investing time into Crawford vs. Spence in the future.

I should also be fully transparent that I have filmed for SNAC System in the past, not currently – and that if someone wants to take my opinion with a grain of salt that is fine, though I would say the same thing regardless.