Comments Thread For: The Timing of Terence Crawford

[BIGPOPPAPUMP]

By Cliff Rold - This much everyone can agree on. When WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KO) defends this Saturday against former IBF and WBC titlist Shawn Porter (31-3-1, 27 KO) on ESPN+ pay-per-view (7 PM EST), it will be the best opponent Crawford has faced since moving to welterweight in 2018. Crawford leaves plenty to debate o
[Click Here To Read More]

[1hourRun]

Three wins jump out when considering how timing has played into Crawford’s career: Viktor Postol, John Molina Jr., and Felix Diaz.

What if those three names were instead Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov, and Lamont Peterson?

It’s worth remembering the context. Postol faced Crawford immediately off a knockout win of Matthysse. Molina faced Crawford right after upsetting Provodnikov. Diaz won two fights after a narrow, debatable loss to Peterson prior to seeing Crawford.

Most fans that have a unfavorable opinion of 'BUD' do not have enough information or discernment to render any form of judgement regarding Terence Crawford's resume.

These dopes are hype-gobblers, that need the flavor of the month to validate a proven veteran ; Terence consistent dominant performance over quality world-class opposition is not a 'Eye-Test', as some critics have put it. Rather, such impressive results throughout three-weight classes have rendered a first ballot HOF career, and yet the doubters are still looking for the proof -- its sad but funny to see, boxing fans are legit ******.

[Oregonian]

By Cliff Rold - This much everyone can agree on. When WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford (37-0, 28 KO) defends this Saturday against former IBF and WBC titlist Shawn Porter (31-3-1, 27 KO) on ESPN+ pay-per-view (7 PM EST), it will be the best opponent Crawford has faced since moving to welterweight in 2018. Crawford leaves plenty to debate o
[Click Here To Read More]

———
Truer words have never been spoken. Crawford has a truly weak resume at WW. Three years in and nothing glittering about his resume.
If Porter is able to pull off an upset, Crawford’s career is literally over. Even the casuals will wipe him off.
Here’s wishing Porter comes in to fight. The same way he fought Spence. I’d rather root for Porter who, despite the close losses he’s had, he has literally fought a list of who’s who at WW.

[-Kev-]

it will be the best opponent Crawford has faced since moving to welterweight in 2018.

Correction: It will be the best opponent Crawford has faced since 2016 when he fought Postol after being accused of ducking him and avoiding him. And if we are being completely honest, Porter is going to be the best fighter Crawford has ever fought in his career.

It’s worth remembering the context. Postol faced Crawford immediately off a knockout win of Matthysse. Molina faced Crawford right after upsetting Provodnikov. Diaz won two fights after a narrow, debatable loss to Peterson prior to seeing Crawford.

Crawford dominated all three of them, stopping Molina and Diaz in fights where it was hard to find a losing frame. Those who aren’t skeptical about the resume of Crawford look at another element that can feed perceptions: style points. Crawford accumulated those in all three fights.

Cliff Rold is trying his best to big up Crawford, but when you are highlighting John Molina Jr and Felix Diaz, that says everything about Crawford's resume. I know that Cliff is not necessarily complimenting Crawford throughout the entire article. He is being neutral and playing devil's advocate with Crawford's resume and what fans/media say it's missing big names, and even acknowledging that Crawford has a thin resume. But mentioning John Molina Jr and Felix Diaz, isn't doing Crawford any favors.

His pre-Postol resume, on the other hand, is worth highlighting. Klimov came off of beating Molina Jr, and Crawford even struggled to look good vs Klimov. He won all 10 rounds against him, but looked completely mediocre while doing it. It was a tedious fight to watch and you can see the frustration in Crawford's face and body language. Prescott was also more durable than anyone Crawford has fought at 140-147. Same with Ricky Burns. So was Beltran. So was Postol.

Klimov, Prescott, Burns, Beltran, Postol all went the distance with Crawford. This is when Top Rank stepped their matchmaking game up and started giving Crawford "knockoutable" fighters. Fighters who can make him look better. With Gamboa, he showed that he can go for the KO if he is matched with the right opponent, and stop giving him durable opponents. Leading up to Postol, Crawford was given a healthy dose of fighters he can KO.

It feels like only Postol is regularly brought up as a real quality win.

That's because that was his last quality win. That was the last win where he fought someone that fans wanted to see him fight. Someone that fans thought could be a tough fight for Crawford. Someone durable, not easy to KO. Someone ranked in the top 3 of his division. The #1 fighter vs the #2 fighter. At this time, I was a Crawford fan and predicted Crawford would outbox him. I liked the fight and Crawford's performance. But what he followed that win with, I could no longer be a fan of his or defend/support his choice of opponents. When he fought Molina Jr, I was disappointed. He then fought Diaz, and I was even more disappointed. His 140 run culminated with Indongo, I turned into a full blown Crawford hater when he chose to fight Diaz. Crawford fighting Indongo made me puke at the thought that I rooted for this guy in the past. He then went on to beat Horn and claim he just beat the man who beat the man and that he is a Hall of Famer and claimed his resume was so great but that he will never get credit. This guy's resume is so bad now, that at 34 years old, he might as well just get KO'ed by Porter and take him out of his misery, make him retire.

What if those three names were instead Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov, and Lamont Peterson?

More mediocrity. I am surprised he didn't fight them. Those 3 would have been perfect additions to Crawford's resume. They would have followed the theme of Crawford facing "okay" fighters who were never elite.

Crawford-Porter will bridge the divide between a Crawford who has competed exclusively for several years under Top Rank/ESPN banner and a Porter who is affiliated with PBC broadcasts. For many fans, a win would begin to answer the biggest argument about Crawford’s place in the sport.

It boils down to one word: resume.

Crawford may very well beat Porter, who knows. I mean he is favored to win. People expect Crawford to win. Afterall, he has looked "better" than Porter because Porter fights elites and not gimme fights and no-hopers. Top Rank has built up Crawford like the WCW built up Goldberg in the 90s. Great job by TR. They made Crawford look like a top 3 P4P fighter in the last 5 years, with perfect matchmaking. Perfect timing on when to fight good names. Khan and Brook, wait til they are no longer top 10 at 147. Gamboa, coming up in weight, smaller, chinny. Horn coming off a beating at the hands of Pacquiao so bad that the ref threatened to stop the fight because Horn was just a punching bag in there, in a gift decision win. One-legged Benavidez. Finally fighting a top 10 guy, the bottom of the top 10, Kavaliouskas, was about as close as we can get to seeing Crawford vs a top 10 guy again. #7 ranked Kavaliouskas. This was Crawford's way of "stepping up".

Now at 34 years old, he has decided to kick it up a notch, fight the #4 best fighter of the weight class. Slow clap. At the tail end of his career, the guy is stepping up again, against a legit top 5 fighter of the division. Finally. Fighting Porter is the least he could do.

[Jack_sh*t]

A TC article always seems to provoke intelligent and informed discussion amongst true fans of the sport. However, living in a backwater of the UK as I do, the folk I get to chat boxing with in person are all casuals and I would bet none of them have even heard of Terence Crawford. This highlights the most frustrating thing about boxing for me, which is that old chestnut about the best fighting the best. Bud has a strong argument for top welterweight based on the skills he possesses, but he doesn't sell enough tickets to generate the revenue to get him the fights to prove it. He's the definition of high risk low reward. He doesn't seem interested in creating hype, putting himself out there and using the media to stir up the controversy that sells fights, yet he expects to be paid as if he does. This isn't criticism, just observation. I don't know whether Terence just shuns the limelight because of humility or because of arrogance, but I see that it's a lack of self-promotion rather than a lack of skill that has stalled his career. I'm excited to see how he deals with Porter and where his career goes after that if he wins. I think a fight with Josh Taylor (if he moves up) here in the UK would be a great fight which would also sell. Then we have Jaron Ennis coming through, although I think he needs a couple more meaningful fights before he's ready to face Crawford. If Crawford deals with those two then I'd say he's a first ballot HOF. I haven't mentioned Spence simply because I've given up hope that fight is ever going to happen while it's still relevant.

[Bronx2245]

Bud just never got the fights we wanted to see! I think DSG's wins over Khan and Matthysse were better than anything Bud did at 140! I also think Josh Taylor's run @ 140 was better than Crawford's too! Crawford should be most angriest with his promoter:

Bob Arum admits he killed Pacquiao-Crawford fight, didn’t want to see Manny take damage

“Well I killed the fight. Yeah. [I wouldn’t want that for Manny] because I know how it would end...Not that I knew that it would end in serious disability for Manny — that I wouldn’t know — but as a fight it would only end one way.

“Forget my emotions, I wouldn’t wanna see him take that kind of damage because it might affect his future life — quality of his future life.”

https://www.badlefthook.com/2019/1/2...ny-take-damage

That was "the one that got away!" How much different would Crawford's career been had he fought Pacquiao in 2017-2018?

[Liondw]

Crawford should not sign any new contract with Top Rank.

That doesn't mean he should sign with PBC, maybe, but better if he could have power as a free agent as Canelo is doing, even though he doesn't have the star power yet of a Canelo.

It should be easier then to make just about any big fight, but also don't be too greedy thinking he can demand Canelo money now. If he can get a big fight or two and beat the likes of Spence, then his value would go up.

[soul_survivor]

Cliff is just as much of a shill as Fitz. Acting as if all the PBC guys fought each other and Spence stands atop as clear winner of the 147 division lol

[Gaylord Barrett]

Bud is 10x better than the weight bully Spence who should be ashamed of himself as a giant amongst trolls
Spence needs to get his backside to middleweight and Bud needs to smash all comers to prove himself.
Spence isnt even that good - he struggled against a Porter who had already been humiliated by Kell Brook at his peak and the only reason Brook lost to Spence was cos he had his heart taken against GGG and will lose to anyone decent

[breeto80]

Crawford has already destroyed his resume. And he's on the wrong side of the clock. Pushing 35 yrs old. Porter has been regurgitated 10x over, fought everyone. Won some , lost some. What does Crawford get from beating a Porter ? Nothing. Is Porter a good opponent ? Sure he is . But nobody is expecting him to win. Nobody. To be great , you have to fight someone that maybe your not favoured against. Or it's a " pick-em " fight. Crawford has never done that. Never. I don't care who's fault it is. I'm not doing any finger pointing. But the bottom line is Crawford's resume is horrible considering some have him at the top, or near the top of the " pound for pound " rankings. The train has passed him. The Spence vs Crawford fight could've been the modern day Leonard vs Hearns . That opportunity is gone as both are past their primes . Some might argue they are in their primes, I beg to differ. Bottom line , there isn't even a whisper of these guys fighting. It's not happening. It's a stain on Spence's resume too, but more on Crawford's. People might think I'm a Crawford " hater " . I'm not . Furthest thing from that. I love his skillset . I like Terrence Crawford. But to be great, you have to fight greatness. He hasn't done that. And no organization, no fan , no writer, no boxing site, can tell me any different. And again, him beating a Shawn Porter, won't change that opinion either.