Crawford: Bradley Must Avoid A War With Rios To Win

By Keith Idec

Now that he has defeated Dierry Jean and can only wait on Manny Pacquiao’s decision on whether to fight him, Terence Crawford has shifted his focus to the upcoming fight of a close friend who has opposed Pacquiao twice.

Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) is expected to attend Timothy Bradley’s bout against Brandon Rios on Nov. 7 at UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center (HBO). Crawford will cheer for Bradley (32-1-1, 12 KOs, 1 NC), a close friend, and hopes Bradley boxes the rugged Rios (33-2-1, 24 KOs) in Bradley’s first fight with new trainer Teddy Atlas in his corner.

“That’s gonna be a great fight,” Crawford told BoxingScene.com. “If Tim sticks to his guns and boxes, he can win that fight. … It’s boxing. Anything can happen. But if he boxes, I expect him to win.”

The last thing Crawford wants to see that night is anything resembling Bradley’s unforgettable brawl with Russia’s Ruslan Provodnikov in March 2013.

“He needs to avoid that a lot,” said Crawford, who stopped Jean in the 10th round Saturday night in his native Omaha, Nebraska. “He’s been in a lot of wars and I feel like he doesn’t need to be in any more at this point of his career.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.