After scaling two divisions to outclass Canelo Álvarez for the undisputed super-middleweight championship before a record crowd on Saturday night, Terence Crawford wasted no time calling it the defining performance of an already brilliant career.

“This is definitely a signature win,” Crawford said. “Moving up two weight classes, being the B-side, fighting a guy that’s been undefeated in the division, undisputed, taking all his titles, doing everything that I said I was going to do. Of course this means a lot.”

Asked when he knew he would beat Álvarez, the laconic Crawford didn’t miss a beat. “When he signed the contract,” he said, drawing laughter from the room. But the one-liners were accompanied by a deeper insistence that this result was no accident. “When I set my sights on doing something and I know what I’m capable of, it’s not like a surprise to me,” he said. “It’s a surprise to y’all, because y’all didn’t believe me. But for me, I knew I could do it. I just needed the opportunity.”

Crawford described the first few rounds as controlled rather than cautious. “I felt like I was in control,” he said. “I think he was trying to figure me out.” When Álvarez did get through with punches to the body, Crawford brushed them off. “He wasn’t hitting the body or anything. He was hitting my elbow because I was blocking it.”

The sixth round, when Crawford began to stand his ground and land sharp left hands, marked the moment he felt the balance shift. “Around like the sixth round, I felt like I needed to step it up a little more and get more control of the fight, because the fight was going like a seesaw effect,” he said. From there he grew more confident, even smiling at Canelo’s best shots in the late rounds.

Much of the buildup had focused on whether Crawford, who had fought at 147lb or below in all but one of his 41 previous fights, could handle Canelo’s power. He was dismissive. “I’ve been hit harder,” he said, citing Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who hurt him briefly in 2019. “[Kavaliauskas] hit harder than Canelo, to me, to be honest.”

When told that Álvarez appeared to fade in the later rounds, Crawford refused to diminish his opponent. “He was 1,000% prepared. I just think I was the better man today.”

Álvarez, for his part, offered no excuses after turning up for a press conference that most would have understood if he’d blown off. “We knew Crawford is a great fighter … I tried my best tonight, and I just couldn’t figure out the style. You need to take the loss and accept everything,” he said. Later he added, almost ruefully: “Sometimes you try and your body cannot go. That’s my frustration … my body just didn’t let me go any more.”

The win made Crawford the first male boxer in the four-belt era to become undisputed in three divisions, an achievement previously matched only by Henry Armstrong in 1938. “It means a lot to me, because anybody can be a nobody,” Crawford said. “That’s all they say I’ve been fighting is nobodies. So what can they say now? Somebody tell me, what can you say now?”

Crawford insisted he had nothing but respect for Canelo. “He’s a great champion. He’s a strong competitor,” he said. “Like I said before, I’ve got nothing but respect for Canelo. I’m a big fan of Canelo and he fought like a champion today.” Álvarez even returned the compliment with a striking admission: “I think Crawford is way better than Floyd Mayweather.”

As for his own place in history, Crawford pushed back against the inevitable comparisons. “Floyd was the greatest in his era. I’m the greatest in my era. It ain’t no need to compare me to Floyd or Floyd to me.”

And then, the fighter who has built a career on being understated, finished with a reminder that the vindication was as much about the doubters as the believers. “The ones that doubted me, they know,” he said. “I don’t have to say I told you so or rub it in their face. This right here is I told you so.”

A local government official in Iowa has said he would refuse to comply with orders from the Republican state governor to fly flags at half-staff in honor of rightwing political activist Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot on Wednesday.

Jon Green, the chair of the Johnson county board of supervisors in Iowa, announced on Thursday on social media that he would not follow governor Kim Reynolds’s directive to fly flags at half-staff for Kirk through Sunday evening.

“I condemn Kirk’s killing, regardless of who pulled the trigger or why,” Green, who is a Democrat, wrote. “But I will not grant Johnson county honors to a man who made it his life’s mission to denigrate so many of the constituents I have sworn an oath to protect – and who did so much to harm not only the marginalized – but also to degrade the fabric of our body politic.”

Green told the Gazette newspaper that his stand was motivated by Reynolds’ failure to issue a similar order after other prominent cases of gun violence. For instance, Iowa did not honor Minnesota’s Democratic house speaker Melissa Hortman when she was shot to death alongside her husband, Mark, at their home in June in what investigators suspect was an act of political violence.

The announcement from Green did say that Johnson county flags would fly at half-staff on Friday in remembrance of those killed in the September 11 terrorist attacks 24 years earlier. And he also paid tribute to two students at a high school in Evergreen, Colorado, who were shot and wounded at their campus by a peer who died by suicide on the same day of Kirk’s killing.

“Johnson county flags will fly as usual,” Green added. “I will accept any consequence, whether legal or electoral, for my decision. It is mine alone.”

Reynolds responded by criticizing Green’s decision on social media, saying that it was “disgraceful that a locally elected official has chosen to put politics above human decency during a time like this”.

In a statement given to the Des Moines Register, Democratic Iowa state senator Zach Wahls, who represents parts of Johnson county, said he disagreed with Green’s decision to not lower the flags.

“I don’t think that’s the appropriate decision,” Wahls said, adding: “I think they should comply with the governor’s instructions on this topic.”

However, supervisor Mandi Remington, another Democratic member of the Johnson county board of supervisors in Iowa, supported Green’s decision. She told the Des Moines Register that “while I condemn political violence, lowering our county’s flags is an honor that should reflect our community’s values”.

“Charlie Kirk spent his career working to marginalize LGBTQ+ people, undermine women’s rights, and divide our country along lines of hate and exclusion,” Remington said.

“Johnson county is home to a diverse community, including many who were the direct targets of Kirk’s rhetoric. To honor him with our flags would be to dismiss the harm he caused to our neighbors and constituents.

“Supervisor Green’s stance affirms that our county will not elevate voices that work to strip others of dignity, freedom, and belonging. I believe this decision is a principled one, rooted in respect for the people of Johnson county and the constitutional values we are sworn to protect.”

Green’s defiance of Reynolds came amid a coordinated effort to clamp down on critical commentary about Kirk, leading people across the US to either be fired from or disciplined at their jobs.

According to what Green told HuffPost, he is “entirely confident” he has acted within his rights, saying has not satisfied any of the conditions under Iowa state law which could enable Reynolds to oust him from his post.

“The governor has no authority to remove me from office,” Green remarked to the outlet. “I’m sure if she thought she had some legal basis to do anything to me, she wouldn’t have posted on [social media]. She would’ve sent the law for me.”

On Saturday, the Kirk-founded Turning Point USA announced that a memorial service would be held for him on 21 September at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the NFL’s Cardinals play their home games.