By Keith Idec
Hank Lundy believes he has created a psychological advantage over Terence Crawford, despite that he is a huge underdog entering their 140-pound title fight Saturday night.
“I know I’m in his head,” Lundy said during a conference call. “What people tell you? Terence Crawford don’t do none of that. I’m already in his head. I’m good at what I do. But I also mean every word I say.”
The trash-talking Lundy has tried his best to irritate Crawford since their fight was made last month. Crawford contends Lundy can’t do anything to take his focus away from winning convincingly Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden (HBO), but Lundy suspects the typically low-key Crawford has subconsciously acknowledged Lundy’s psychological success by acting out of character during the promotion.
“You could just see,” Lundy said. “Like everybody knows Terence don’t talk much, you know, he don’t say much, you know, he don’t act a certain way, you know, before the fight. But you’ve seen a different Terence Crawford this fight, you know, leading up to this fight. … Cussing. Stating that he’s been shot, he’s from the streets, this and that. You ain’t never seen that from Terence Crawford.”
Lundy doesn’t worry that his verbal barrages have only motivated Crawford, the way Dierry Jean did before Crawford picked him apart and knocked him out October 24 in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.
“At the end of the day, I wanted to motivate him,” Lundy said. “I wanted him to come in there on his ‘A’ game. Because when they raise my hand and put that [WBO] belt around my waist, it’s not gonna be, ‘If I had trained this way. If I had trained that way.’ I want him [at] the best [of] his ability, so he has no excuses.”
The 12-round bout between Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) and Philadelphia’s Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs) will be the main event of HBO’s “World Championship Boxing” doubleheader Saturday night. The telecast will start at 10 p.m. ET/PT with a 10-round lightweight fight that’ll pit Puerto Rico’s Felix Verdejo (19-0, 14 KOs) against Brazil’s William Silva (23-0, 14 KOs).
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.
