by Tamas Pradarics
Julius Indongo is scheduled to have far and away the biggest fight in his career on August 19th when he takes on P4P top-5 rated Terence Crawford at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska. These two pugilists are the only reigning titleholders at the super lightweight division today.
The Namibian Indongo (22-0, 11 KO’s) is holding the WBA/IBF/IBO belts while the American Crawford (31-0, 22 KO’s) is a WBC/WBO/Ring champ. The winner of this historical matchup is going to be the first undisputed champion in 12 years. The last man who was able to hold all four sanctioning body belts at the same time was Jermain Taylor after the former Olympic bronze medalist won a questionable twelve-round decision over Bernard Hopkins in the summer of 2005. Taylor lost the IBF belt right after he agreed to an immediate rematch with Hopkins.
Given the fact Indongo is still largely unknown for general supporters of boxing, Crawford vs Indongo seems to get moderated attention by the media. The overwhelming hype around the Mayweather vs McGregor event, that takes place only a week after the undisputed 140-pound get-go, does not help the promotion, either. That however, does not stop Nestor Tobias, manager of Indongo, to believe this is the biggest fight to happen in boxing today.
”Any person with a sober mind should agree with me that this is the biggest fight in the whole world. That is why the great Bob Arum of Top Rank said that normally Omaha is the capital of Nebraska, but come August 19th it will be the capital of the world in boxing,” acknowledged Tobias.
The Namibian manager also suggests the magnitude of the event easily surpasses anything a Namibian athlete has ever been a part of.
”Although we do not want to undermine the achievement of our former champions, people who laid the foundation for us, we have to thank and appreciate their achievements, but also the reality must be told: this is the biggest boxing event or any sporting event that involved a Namibian. Julius ’Blue Machine’ Indongo is an undefeated world champion [and he is about] to unify his titles with another undefeated world champion in Terence Crawford. This is a classic undisputed world championship fight.”
Indongo has had quite a Cinderella-story as he came into the spotlight only eight months ago with a first-round annihilation of undefeated Eduard Troyanovsky for the IBF/IBO 140-pound titles in Russia. In his first defense, he travelled to Glasgow, Scotland to shot out three-division champion Ricky Burns.
In his third straight fight, Julius enters the ring as an underdog. With a win, the Namibian titleholder would cement his position at the top of his division and his name could even appear on P4P lists. Of course, beating Terence Crawford would take more of Indongo that he has shown of himself, as the American is one of the finest pugilists around the globe.
Tobias knows the stakes are high and, as always, he is positive about the outcome come fight night.
”This is a big challenge for both boxers as it can not get any bigger than this. I believe both boxers have been working very hard and they are ready and for sure we are going to the USA as an underdog just like we went to Russia and Scotland and came back untouched. Come August 19th we are going to the USA to shock the world.”
You can reach Tamas Pradarics at pradaricst@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter at @TomiPradarics.
