Once Canelo Alvarez placed his name on the dotted line, Terence Crawford couldn’t stop himself from smiling.

Crawford understood that he had a few things working against him. He was moving up two divisions to face a future Hall of Famer and had never fought on a stage quite as large as the one on September 13 in Las Vegas, for example.

He also understood Alvarez, who was outboxed by Floyd Mayweather and Dmitry Bivol. Crawford watched and learned.

As a result, he defeated Alvarez by a unanimous decision to become the first to hold all four major titles in a third division.

“I knew I was gonna beat him,” Crawford said during a recent interview with "All The Smoke Fight". “When I look at the styles that gave him problems and the styles that he lost to, I have all that and some. The blueprint was already out on how to beat Canelo Alvarez.”

The fact Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) is undefeated is one more advantage he takes into the ring: No one has figured out how to take him down, which only adds to his confidence.

“The blueprint has never been out on how to beat Terence Crawford,” he said. “So I knew I had a good chance at winning.”