Photo: Terence Crawford
As sports fans across the world waited for the incendiary welterweight boxing championship match between Terence Crawford and his archrival Errol Spence Jr., legendary Hip-Hop artist Eminem, born Marshall Bruce Mathers III, made an unprecedented surprise appearance during the former’s ring walk in Las Vegas.
The rapper, who joined Crawford during his welterweight title match at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, hyped the crowd up just ahead of one of the most influential boxing matches of our times.
“Las Vegas, make some noise for the next undisputed welterweight champion of the world, Terence ‘Bud’ f—ing Crawford,” Eminem roared to the roaring crowd at the packed arena.
The rapper then went on to perform his Academy Award-nominated track, and perhaps the most crucial rap record in Hip-Hop history, “Lose Yourself” while Crawford made his way to the boxing ring.
The flagrant boxing match, which went down over the weekend, was won by Crawford who later declared himself the “No 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world” and rightly so. With the massive win, Crawford has now become the division’s first undisputed boxing champion in 37 years.
“The winner of this fight was going to be No 1, pound for pound, hands down. You’ve got Errol Spence, who was ranked No 4, and you got Terence Crawford, who was ranked No 1 [on many lists]. You’ve got two fighters that are in the top five of the pound-for-pound ratings. How can [the winner] not be No 1?,” Crawford said after the fight.
Clocking in at five minutes and a half, “Lose Yourself” still remains of Eminem’s most personal records to date. First featured on Slimshady’s iconic biographical film “8 Mile”, the Jeff Bass-produced track was released just five months after his fourth studio album “The Eminem Show” came out on May 26th, 2002.
“Lose Yourself” was Eminem’s first no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and it remained at the top for 12 consecutive weeks. The Detroit-bred rapper went on to win the “Academy Award for Best Original Song” later that year making it the first hip-hop record to win an Oscar in that category.
Listen to ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem via Spotify.
