By Keith Idec
Lou DiBella didn’t call Terence Crawford overrated.
Felix Diaz’s promoter merely argued Thursday that the undefeated WBC/WBO super lightweight champion’s prominent place in boxing isn’t built on an overly impressive resume. DiBella believes Diaz, Crawford’s opponent May 20 at Madison Square Garden, is the best fighter Crawford will have faced.
“I know how good Crawford is,” DiBella said during a conference call. “Felix knows how good Crawford is. You all know how good Crawford is. But he’s not God. He’s not unbeatable. He’s had tough fights and he’s had tough fights with guys that are somewhat – I think that Gamboa at the time, for a little guy, gave him a tough fight. I think Diaz has a lot of the same attributes, in terms of pressure and style, to make it a very difficult night for Bud.”
In his last two fights against unbeaten opponents, Crawford dominated Ukraine’s Viktor Postol during their 12-rounder July 23 in Las Vegas and stopped Cuba’s Yuriorkis Gamboa in the ninth round of their June 2014 bout in Omaha, Nebraska, Crawford’s hometown.
The 29-year-old Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) also went to Glasgow and defeated Scotland’s Ricky Burns by unanimous decision to win the WBO lightweight title in March 2014.
Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs) has lost only to WBA welterweight champion Lamont Peterson, who defeated Diaz by majority decision in their highly competitive 12-rounder in October 2015 in Fairfax, Virginia. Crawford has more noteworthy wins on his record than Diaz, but DiBella thinks Crawford has feasted on opponents who’ve moved up to fight Crawford either at lightweight or junior welterweight.
“I think he’s a damn good fighter,” DiBella said. “I mean, I think he’s fought smaller guys. I don’t think his resume screams of the best in the world. But to be honest, in this day and age, not a lot of resumes do. Until proven otherwise, he’s a terrific fighter and you know, Felix said it himself – he wanted this fight because he views him as the best. I do think that he’s now in there with a guy with real credentials, who’s a real 40-pounder. He has fought a lot of guys who are smaller than himself and maybe, not in my mind, on the level of Felix.
“But I take nothing away from the guy. He’s certainly one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the game today. Unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of resumes that look like Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, Duran, Pernell Whitaker or those kind of situations anymore, because we’ve gotta do a better job of getting the best in with the best. I think the reason people should come out to MSG on May 20th is because I think this is an example of the best fighting the best.”
HBO will broadcast Crawford-Diaz as the main event of a “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader a week from Saturday night. The telecast will open at 10:15 p.m. ET/PT with a 12-round lightweight bout between Phoenix’s Ray Beltran (32-7-1, 20 KOs, 1 NC) and Peru’s Jonathan Maicelo (25-2, 12 KOs, 1 NC).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.