Tweet
All the way up til July 29th, 2023.....many of the "non Crawford fans" wanted to claim that he had fought nobody because their favorite fighter said as much. But when we look at how other fighters are praised, it's easy to see that the energy changes when it comes to evaluating Crawford and his accomplishments.
Anytime you see a list of accolades that consist of 9x World Champion across 3 divsions. 3x Lineal Champion, 2x Undisputed, 2x Fighter of the Year, ESPY Award Winner.........no question you consider that fighter as one of the top 5 greats of all time or at least have an argument.....but because it's Terence Crawford who comes from a city that isn't known for producing world class fighters. He has to have explanations attached to his achievements in some people's eyes.
This man when to a foreign land as a relative no name fighter and won his first world title by dominating the hometown hero. Ricky Burns is bigger in his homeland than Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, or Errol Spence Jr. is here in the U.S.
Crawford then defends his title vs an undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa who a was top5 p4p by The Ring ****zine at the time. People give Gamboa more love for landing a clean punch on Crawford in the 6th round in between Crawford's attack than they do to Crawford for putting Gamboa on the canvas multiple times in route to a stoppage. Amazingly, Gamboa clearly hasn't been the same since his fight vs Crawford. Today he's maybe a C-Class opponent, but Tank Davis & Devin Haney got ultimate praise for going into the championship rounds with him on their way to a victory. But Crawford has "fought nobody".......
Crawford followed that up with a title defense with Ray Beltran... The man who arguably was "robbed" vs Ricky Burns and should have been the champ.... Crawford decided to give him another opportunity being that he was the #2 in the division. Gives him the same treatment he did to Burns.
Dulorme in his prime at 140lbs decides to give Crawford his first challenge as he decided to move up from 135lbs.....Crawford stops him to gain his 2nd world title in as many divisions. Dulorme goes on to lose 5 of his next 8 bouts. One of them was a 1st round stoppage vs Jaron Boots Ennis at a division Dulorme doesn't belong in. 147lbs. Ennis claims to be bigger, stronger than the elites at welterweight, but he builds his signature wins on smaller fighters moving up like Lipinets and Dulorme..... Boots got ultimate praise for getting the stoppage of Dulorme....the same guy that is one of the "nobodies" that Crawford had on his resume.
Dierry Jean came into his fight vs Crawford with a 4 bout win streak after his only lost to Lamont Peterson.... Crawford dismantle him. Jean fought one more time and hung up his gloves.
Hank Lundy is just a motor mouth to me and was the first to try to get personal with Crawford and we saw where he ended up.
Viktor Postol was suppose to be the guy to expose Crawford. He was trained by Freddie Roach. It was suppose to be the fight that challenged Crawford to see if he was equipped and qualified to share a ring with Manny Pacquiao. Crawford 12-0'ed Postol and ever since then....Manny has been in protective custody from Crawford.
Molina was a sacrificial lamb for PBC.....Molina's awkward style never posed a threat. He was at best a gate keeper....but I wouldn't even give him that much praise.
Felix Diaz was a decent opponent. In my opinion a fighter that prepare Crawford for a fight he would be in years later vs Porter. Diaz was a short hefty fighter who pressures constantly. Diaz came in the ring north of 160lbs fight night even though he weighted in at 140 the night before. Diaz's only loss was to Lamont Peterson 2 years prior.
Julius Indongo....a little known unified champ by American Fans, and arguably most of the boxing world. Career was built in Namibia, his homeland and then dared to be great by taking his talents to Russia & then Scotland for back to back title bouts and came out as a unified champ. Then brings his talents to the U.S. where he runs into Crawford's body snatching hook that ends his greatness on spot.
Now we have Crawford challenging all the champions at welterweight and the new term "wrong side of the street" becomes the cliche.
Jeff Horn goes 12 rounds with Manny and gets a questionable decision over him. But it was clear that he was too big and strong for Manny to take him out. Crawford smacks him around in the worse way.
Jose Benavidez gets shot in his leg...out for 2 years. Comes back and stops 2 opponents before challenging Crawford. One of those opponents were stopped in the 1st round I believe. Neither of those fights did Jose wear a sleeve on his knee nor was it questioned for his competition. But here comes Crawford and the week before the fight, it's mentioned during an All Access episode and now attention is directed to Jose's knee. Though he sparred in my gym the week before with no brace.....he enters the ring vs Crawford with one on. Never really had a upper hand at any point in the fight but did have a nice snap to start.... Come 5/6th round, Crawford's body attack was beginning to take it's toll and Benavidez wants to lean on the ropes rather than pressing Crawford like he did the first few rounds. Late Stoppage....
Khan comes in as the first unranked opponent Crawford has faced in his professional career since 2012 when he faced Sidney Siqueira. The the Khan fight only occurred because Danny Garcia turned down a $3M offered from Top Rank for a title shot, which to this day is still his largest guarantee. Crawford did to Amir Khan in the first round what took Canelo 6 rounds to do........put him on the ground.... Khan was looking for a way out by the end of the 2nd round.
I think I've talked long enough...But my point is........ Crawford breaks down his opponents physically and mentally in that ring. All while gaining his own rhythm and then obliterates the opposition. And he makes it look so much easier than it is. And because the names aren't "***y" to American Fans....then the notion is "he hasn't fought anybody".....But these are all world class competition. Former Olympians, World Champions, highly ranked division opponents......Crawford is head and shoulders better at the end of the night.
Now we have Errol Spence Jr who gets THE EXACT SAME treatment the others gotten and people are some how surprised.... As if Crawford hasn't shown he's capable of doing this to his opponents for a long time now.
So now, I'm sitting listening to different fan bases (Spence fans, Crawford fans, boxing fans, etc....) analyze what we witnessed last weekend. Is Spence another one of these "nobodies" that Crawford has faced, being that he had less success than both Brooke, Porter, Avaneysan, and Kavaliauskas had all together......or are we going to legit look at the greatness that Crawford has given us over the course of his career without taking every opportunity to discredit him due to the names not being popular to American Fans.
Or................as a 3rd option........are we going to justify and create various excuses as to why Crawford was able to dominate Spence in the manner he did.....weight drained....car accident.....damaged eye.........and I just saw the new rumor.........apparently Terence had questionable gloves...similar to the Tyson Fury rumors........lol.
Anytime you see a list of accolades that consist of 9x World Champion across 3 divsions. 3x Lineal Champion, 2x Undisputed, 2x Fighter of the Year, ESPY Award Winner.........no question you consider that fighter as one of the top 5 greats of all time or at least have an argument.....but because it's Terence Crawford who comes from a city that isn't known for producing world class fighters. He has to have explanations attached to his achievements in some people's eyes.
This man when to a foreign land as a relative no name fighter and won his first world title by dominating the hometown hero. Ricky Burns is bigger in his homeland than Danny Garcia, Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, or Errol Spence Jr. is here in the U.S.
Crawford then defends his title vs an undefeated Yuriorkis Gamboa who a was top5 p4p by The Ring ****zine at the time. People give Gamboa more love for landing a clean punch on Crawford in the 6th round in between Crawford's attack than they do to Crawford for putting Gamboa on the canvas multiple times in route to a stoppage. Amazingly, Gamboa clearly hasn't been the same since his fight vs Crawford. Today he's maybe a C-Class opponent, but Tank Davis & Devin Haney got ultimate praise for going into the championship rounds with him on their way to a victory. But Crawford has "fought nobody".......
Crawford followed that up with a title defense with Ray Beltran... The man who arguably was "robbed" vs Ricky Burns and should have been the champ.... Crawford decided to give him another opportunity being that he was the #2 in the division. Gives him the same treatment he did to Burns.
Dulorme in his prime at 140lbs decides to give Crawford his first challenge as he decided to move up from 135lbs.....Crawford stops him to gain his 2nd world title in as many divisions. Dulorme goes on to lose 5 of his next 8 bouts. One of them was a 1st round stoppage vs Jaron Boots Ennis at a division Dulorme doesn't belong in. 147lbs. Ennis claims to be bigger, stronger than the elites at welterweight, but he builds his signature wins on smaller fighters moving up like Lipinets and Dulorme..... Boots got ultimate praise for getting the stoppage of Dulorme....the same guy that is one of the "nobodies" that Crawford had on his resume.
Dierry Jean came into his fight vs Crawford with a 4 bout win streak after his only lost to Lamont Peterson.... Crawford dismantle him. Jean fought one more time and hung up his gloves.
Hank Lundy is just a motor mouth to me and was the first to try to get personal with Crawford and we saw where he ended up.
Viktor Postol was suppose to be the guy to expose Crawford. He was trained by Freddie Roach. It was suppose to be the fight that challenged Crawford to see if he was equipped and qualified to share a ring with Manny Pacquiao. Crawford 12-0'ed Postol and ever since then....Manny has been in protective custody from Crawford.
Molina was a sacrificial lamb for PBC.....Molina's awkward style never posed a threat. He was at best a gate keeper....but I wouldn't even give him that much praise.
Felix Diaz was a decent opponent. In my opinion a fighter that prepare Crawford for a fight he would be in years later vs Porter. Diaz was a short hefty fighter who pressures constantly. Diaz came in the ring north of 160lbs fight night even though he weighted in at 140 the night before. Diaz's only loss was to Lamont Peterson 2 years prior.
Julius Indongo....a little known unified champ by American Fans, and arguably most of the boxing world. Career was built in Namibia, his homeland and then dared to be great by taking his talents to Russia & then Scotland for back to back title bouts and came out as a unified champ. Then brings his talents to the U.S. where he runs into Crawford's body snatching hook that ends his greatness on spot.
Now we have Crawford challenging all the champions at welterweight and the new term "wrong side of the street" becomes the cliche.
Jeff Horn goes 12 rounds with Manny and gets a questionable decision over him. But it was clear that he was too big and strong for Manny to take him out. Crawford smacks him around in the worse way.
Jose Benavidez gets shot in his leg...out for 2 years. Comes back and stops 2 opponents before challenging Crawford. One of those opponents were stopped in the 1st round I believe. Neither of those fights did Jose wear a sleeve on his knee nor was it questioned for his competition. But here comes Crawford and the week before the fight, it's mentioned during an All Access episode and now attention is directed to Jose's knee. Though he sparred in my gym the week before with no brace.....he enters the ring vs Crawford with one on. Never really had a upper hand at any point in the fight but did have a nice snap to start.... Come 5/6th round, Crawford's body attack was beginning to take it's toll and Benavidez wants to lean on the ropes rather than pressing Crawford like he did the first few rounds. Late Stoppage....
Khan comes in as the first unranked opponent Crawford has faced in his professional career since 2012 when he faced Sidney Siqueira. The the Khan fight only occurred because Danny Garcia turned down a $3M offered from Top Rank for a title shot, which to this day is still his largest guarantee. Crawford did to Amir Khan in the first round what took Canelo 6 rounds to do........put him on the ground.... Khan was looking for a way out by the end of the 2nd round.
I think I've talked long enough...But my point is........ Crawford breaks down his opponents physically and mentally in that ring. All while gaining his own rhythm and then obliterates the opposition. And he makes it look so much easier than it is. And because the names aren't "***y" to American Fans....then the notion is "he hasn't fought anybody".....But these are all world class competition. Former Olympians, World Champions, highly ranked division opponents......Crawford is head and shoulders better at the end of the night.
Now we have Errol Spence Jr who gets THE EXACT SAME treatment the others gotten and people are some how surprised.... As if Crawford hasn't shown he's capable of doing this to his opponents for a long time now.
So now, I'm sitting listening to different fan bases (Spence fans, Crawford fans, boxing fans, etc....) analyze what we witnessed last weekend. Is Spence another one of these "nobodies" that Crawford has faced, being that he had less success than both Brooke, Porter, Avaneysan, and Kavaliauskas had all together......or are we going to legit look at the greatness that Crawford has given us over the course of his career without taking every opportunity to discredit him due to the names not being popular to American Fans.
Or................as a 3rd option........are we going to justify and create various excuses as to why Crawford was able to dominate Spence in the manner he did.....weight drained....car accident.....damaged eye.........and I just saw the new rumor.........apparently Terence had questionable gloves...similar to the Tyson Fury rumors........lol.
DeryckAtlanta
Comment