By Keith Idec
Hank Lundy respects Terence Crawford’s skills.
The junior welterweight contender isn’t overly impressed with Crawford’s resume, though. Lundy feels the undefeated Crawford has received more credit than he deserves for victories over Dierry Jean, Thomas Dulorme, Ray Beltran, Ricky Burns, Andrey Klimov, Alejandro Sanabria and Breidis Prescott. Crawford stopped Jean, Dulorme and Sanabria, and won wide decisions against Beltran, Burns, Klimov and Prescott.
The only victory that somewhat impressed Lundy since Crawford became an HBO fighter three years ago was his ninth-round stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa. But Philadelphia’s Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), who’ll challenge Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) for the WBO 140-pound championship Saturday night in The Theater at Madison Square Garden (HBO), even found fault with Crawford’s win against the smaller Gamboa (25-1, 17 KOs) in June 2014.
“You think about it,” Lundy said during a conference call. “Who has Terence fought, except Gamboa, that had a little bit of a name? It was only Gamboa, man. And Gamboa was what, 5-2? Been off for a year.
“I understand, but at the end of the day, Gamboa was able to out-box him, too, for the first seven rounds. Until Crawford switched up and went southpaw, and Gamboa came in with his head down and got hit. But most people forget that.”
When reminded that Crawford dropped Dulorme three times and stopped him in the fight after Dulorme defeated Lundy by split decision, Lundy responded by saying Dulorme didn’t deserve that victory over him.
“The world knows Thomas Dulorme didn’t beat me,” Lundy said. “The world knows.”
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.
