Cody Crowley shouldn't be here.
That statement can be taken a number of ways. The undefeated welterweight probably shouldn't be facing Abel Ramos on the undercard of the David Benavidez vs. Caleb Plant pay per view. The man who says that he has no God-given ability shouldn't be undefeated. The Canadian should be playing ice hockey somewhere instead of boxing. He shouldn't be alive.
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He shouldn't be here.
"My entire life has been an underdog story and it really doesn't have anything to do with winning," Crowley tells The Sporting News as he sits isolated at KA Theater in the MGM Grand shortly after the final press conference before his big night. "It's just about overcoming adversity."
He'll face Ramos on his 30th birthday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena, across the street from the Hooters Hotel he stayed in when he bought a one-way ticket to Las Vegas to take an ill-advised pursuit of a boxing career.
His mother will be there to see this special moment. However, his biggest supporter, his father, will not. Last summer, Cody Crowley's father took his life at their parents' home in Canada. It devastated Crowley because he had a complicated relationship with his father. Although he knew his father loved him, he couldn't understand why he had such a hard time expressing himself.
"He had personal demons that caught up with him," Crowley says. Since his passing, he has dedicated his life to mental health awareness and partnered with 55 For 55: Let's Tackle Suicide Awareness in his hometown of Peterborough, Canada. "He was the closest person to me and now the best thing to do is honor him by continuing to raise awareness about mental health and for men to release the stigma of having to bury their feelings."
Crowley dealt with his own mental health issues and pondered suicide on several occasions. When he wasn't pondering, he created self-inflicted wounds by self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. He he's here now: clean and healthy with a purpose. But he shouldn't be here.
As a child, Crowley was an overweight kid who dealt with shame and guilt due to childhood trauma that he admits he is still unpacking. But his father recognized his son's issues with his self-belief and put him in kickboxing classes. Crowley's father watched his son's confidence take a hit when he was beat up by a girl in his first kickboxing match but continued to urge his son on, taking him to the gym daily.
So when Crowley graduated high school and stunned everyone when he bought a flight to Vegas to pursue a boxing career despite admittedly not being very skilled, who was there? His father.
"Everyone kept telling me to get boxing out of my head and laughed at me," Crowley recalls. "And then what did I do? I booked a one-way ticket went to Vegas."
He failed miserably and was routinely pummeled in the boxing gym. He realized the boxing bubble in the United States had a much deeper talent pool than the one in Peterborough, Canada.
"I finally gave up, cracked, came home, got into drugs and drink and in came 200 some pounds," he recalls of his early twenties. With the urging of his father and a girl he met at a bar, he collected himself and went back to the gym. Trainer Ibn Cason didn't think he had what it took to become a decent boxer but Crowley kept coming back to the gym.
"I would continue to show up, be the first one at the gym every day, work the absolute hardest, do whatever he said and be the last one to leave," Crowley said. "A few months later, all of a sudden, his guys start kind of falling off and I started getting better. And that opened his eyes up to not judge a book by its cover.
"Any person can become anything if they have the heart, willpower, desire and tenacity to win."
All Crowley did from that point is put his head down and work. Without any out-of-this-world athletic gifts, he decided that his will and resolve would be enough to break whoever was standing across the ring from him. His pro career started in 2014; he won a few fights but ended up getting his big break in a chance sparring session with Floyd Mayweather, who was preparing for the biggest fight of his career against Manny Pacquiao. After spending weeks at the Mayweather Boxing Club hoping to get some work with Mayweather, it finally happened.
"Floyd came in one day super late and just wanted to beat the s*** out of somebody," Crowley recalls. "Something was going on with him because he was pissed off. And all I heard was, 'Canada, you're up!' and I went in the ring. And it's when I had my first out-of-body experience."
Crowley and Mayweather sparred just under 40 minutes straight with no breaks. Impressed with Crowley, Mayweather made him his chief sparring partner and that led to Crowley landing bigger opportunities.
The Canadian formally announced himself to the world that he was a force in the welterweight division when he dominated former title challenger Josesito Lopez in April 2022.
Just after his biggest victory came his greatest loss when his father took his life a few months later. It's a weight that Crowley will carry into the ring with him for his first fight since.
"He didn't know how to communicate his emotions or express his love for me. His way of nurturing was supporting my boxing career," Crowley says. "When I would win and I would see him happy, that made me happy."
Crowley knows that the spirit of his father will be watching him live out his dream on Saturday against what could be his toughest opponent to date in Abel Ramos. And all he wants to do is make his father proud by continuing to win, not only inside of the squared circle, but in the game of life.
"I don't care about money or material things. All I care about is reaching new levels of myself with tougher challenges," Crowley says. "Nothing matters other than that fire inside and achieving something that you didn't think possible."
He's not supposed to be here, but he is.
No matter what happens next, Cody Crowley has already won at the game of life.
Mission accomplished.