How good are Terrance Crawford and Sadam Ali?

[barks62]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum and basically new to the sport in general. I haven't watched boxing since the early 90's, and even then I was only a casual fan at best. A few months ago, out of nowhere, I decided to look up some of the fights I vaguely remember. This time something clicked, and I wanted more.

So I went through my HBO on demand selection, and watched a few fights from the last year or two. They were all good, but the Terrance Crawford/ Yuri Gamboa fight was amazing. When Crawford turned the tide in that fight, I was absolutely hooked on the sport.

I began looking for fights to look forward to, and the Kovalev/ Hopkins fight was coming up. That was a good fight, but I thought the Sadam Ali/ Luis Abregu fight was even more entertaining. Mostly because Ali seemed to be such a huge underdog, and because the crowd was so agitated early, but Ali just kept working his game plan and turned that fight into a pretty good one too.

Now, I think I'm officially a Terrance Crawford and Sadam Ali fan. But given how little boxing I've watched, I don't know squat about who else is out there. Crawford seemed like a very talented fighter, and genuinely likable person, and Ali seemed like an easy underdog to root for, but for all I know they could both be bums that just fooled me into thinking they were really good.

So my question for some people that know stuff is this... how good are these two fighters? Can I expect to see them keep winning, or is it not worth getting my hopes up?

[SterlingStained]

id buy some stock.

very good upside potential with these two.

its always nice to see a real slickster (like sadam ali) come from a different profile fighter that is usually slick. like a white running back in the nfl or a slam dunking white brosephene in the nba.

crawford looks like he got floyd mayweather level greatness potential. hopefully minus the woman beating and better reading fundamentals.

[Deeznuts]

Crawford is the real deal. Sadam Ali is ok but I've seen him get dropped by way lesser opposition. The Abregu fight was his coming out party but well see. Looked like he improved in that fight

[soul_survivor]

mannn yall gettin high on Sadam Ali after seeing him for the first time lol the guy is good, quick, decent pop but I don't see him lasting at 147.

Crawford on the other hand is a top level operator, good boxer who knows how to scrap. My only concern is that he starts fights in an awkward way...not slow or fat but, just, I dunno how to say it...weird. It allowed Gamboa to build up a head of steam, Burns to make it tougher then it should be and even Klimov got some success. It's like Crawford sees the gaps, has hands quick enough to exploit those gaps but just hangs back until the mid rounds when he has to pick it up.

If he moves to 140 and does the same with prov or matthysse if those fights ever happen, he'll get hurt.

[bojangles1987]

Both are very much up for debate. I do think people really, really overrate Crawford. I don't know why people think he's shown ATG, top 5 p4p potential. Right now he simply looks like a pretty good fighter.

[barks62]

I kind of had the feeling that Ali was fighting over his head a little. Like he was fighting the absolute best fight he possibly could to pull out that win. Which made it really, really fun to watch.

Crawford felt like the real deal but I wasn't sure how good Gamboa was. He sure seemed tough, though. I can't wait for Saturday's fight. I'm excited to watch Ali again, too. I'll be rooting for him for sure.

Thanks for the responses!

[IMDAZED]

Both are very much up for debate. I do think people really, really overrate Crawford. I don't know why people think he's shown ATG, top 5 p4p potential. Right now he simply looks like a pretty good fighter.

Somebody actually posted that he has Mayweather potential. Jesus Christ

I like Ali a lot -- since the amateurs. He's grown nicely and I think is ready. Capable of being a good champ but I don't think his ceiling is much higher than that. Crawford is a decent champion but I'm not quite convinced.

[VG_Addict]

I think Crawford is better, because he's more proven. He has wins over Burns and Gamboa, who are top 10 fighters at lightweight, while Ali just recently stepped up to fight Abregu.

[SkillspayBills]

I have been following Ali since the Am's (Brooklyn until my last day) and Crawford is legitimately a p4p level fighter. Keep an eye on them both. You won't be disappointed.

[NEETzsche]

gamboa would have won if he was the same size as crawford