Comments Thread For: Terence Crawford Dominates John Molina; Stops Him in 8th Round

[GMAN SUPREME]

LOL I love how max threw spence in the mix.I didn't like crawford's answer on the spence question.crawford should have called him a hype job just for the lols.

[SteveM]

Postol looked slow because he had to be the aggressor in the fight or their would of BEEN no fight. Go watch any of Postols other fights. He NEVER comes forward like he had to for the Crawford fight. That's what you get when you put two tall technical, counter punchers against each other. One has to fight out of their comfort zone or they BOTH get boo'd out of the joint.

Not sure about that. Crawford could have come forward, as he does in many fights, but he was wary of Postol clipping him. I lost interest a bit in watching Crawford after that fight - he was too mobile and didn't engage enough. If Crawford is matched up with someone who will make him engage and is also athletic then I would be watching - like Spence or Thurman or Brook - even Porter.

[SteveM]

Nah man Postol has always been slow. Matthysse was outboxing him but Matthysse has no defense and Postol has a huge reach, caught him coming in. Even then, Postol has limited power (12 KOs in 29 fights lol), and didn't actually KO Matthysse. What he did was reinjure Matthysse's eye that has been problematic ever since Danny Garcia laced his eye in their fight, and then Matthysse quit. He has had awful luck since the Garcia fight.

Look I get it. People didn't understand why Crawford hadn't fought Postol yet, so they talked smack, and now Crawford fans want to use that like it's Ali-Foreman all over again, and no one thought Crawford could win, and Postol was so amazing, and he proved all the doubters wrong.

It wasn't like that at all. I will tell you exactly what happened: Crawford was at a career high after the Gamboa fight. He was getting regular HBO dates, and we all were eager to see this pound-for-pound talent in great fights now against people his size.

But then what happened?

Crawford went literally 2 ****ing years facing nothing but overmatched C-level guys. Four fights. Four HBO dates. Four total mismatches. Beltran, Dulorme, Jean, Lundy.

So after boxing fans were starved by Team Crawford for two ****ing years of any good matchups, we naturally began to wonder, will Crawford ever face someone decent again? ANYONE! And then the name Postol got floated out there, and after FOUR ****ING TUNEUPS IN A ROW we all said Postol? Please! Yes! Anything but more tuneups! At least he's Crawford's size for the first time in Crawford's entire career on HBO!

Next to all the tuneups Crawford was fighting, Postol sounded pretty good.

That's what happened. Does it mean we thought Postol as a top fighter? No. It was just two things. We were sick of Crawford fighting tuneups, so now that we were finally getting the first at least legitimate matchup in two years, we overrated it because we were starved for a good matchup. It's like if you have nothing to drink for three days, even stale milk will taste amazing. And the other thing was that little Gamboa had hurt Crawford, and Postol "stopped" Matthysse even though it was bull****, so we thought hey, if Gamboa could hurt him, maybe he's chinny, and maybe Postol can hurt him, so the matchup at least has intrigue on paper even if Crawford is a huge favorite.

That's all it was. And Crawford has showed since then that he's not going to get caught in the first place by slow guys, and since then he hasn't gotten hurt at all regardless so maybe even if he does get hit, maybe it turns out that little Gamboa is still more powerful than some of these bigger guys who don't have the explosiveness Gamboa does.

Anyway, Crawford's reach advantage was so key in beating Gamboa, that fighting someone with a big reach advantage over him in Postol was intriguing. But as many predicted, Crawford was so, so much faster that Postol's reach advantage didn't factor in at all. And Crawford had been hurt against a smaller guy, so Postol's size was intriguing, even though Crawford is just as big overall. But at least Crawford was FINALLY fighting someone his size, so that was an intriguing first. And finally, the tuneup train had gone on so long with Crawford, and boxing's schedule overall in 2016 was so awful especially the first half, that we all ate up any actual legitimate matchup between top 5 guys in a division, even if this was a stylistic mismatch in a weak division (because at this point, pretty much all the best 140 pounders besides Crawford are fighting at 147, or, in Mikey Garcia's case, at 135).

So I wish Crawford fans would not make the Postol win something it wasn't. I also see this anti-eastern european undertone sometimes where it's like the opposite of the Broner-Maidana thing. People hated Floyd so much, they were happy to see Broner lose, even though Broner isn't Floyd. Well this it the opposite. I see some people who hate GGG and Kovalev so much, and view them as Eastern Europeans, and since those people can't see them lose (well, outside of bad judging), like people who don't like Floyd couldn't see the actual Floyd lose, they tried to make it like "Postol is also european, so he's part of the same group as GGG and Kovalev, so it counts the same."

None of that is legitimate. Postol is not GGG or Kovalev. He's not even Beterbiev. I don't even think he's as good as Shabrannsky, or Gvosdyk. He does not have athleticism like those guys do.

So let me just say this. I am not a Crawford hater. I think in terms of athletic gifts he and Lomachenko are the closest to a RJJ of this generation. Here is my one big issue. 5 out of his last 6 fights have been complete tuneups in terms of rankings, and 6 of his last 6 fights have been complete tuneups when you factor in styles and athleticism. I want to see him fight other athletic guys.

I mean it's the same thing as with Floyd later in his career. They were able to hype him as being totally unhittable because they kept matching him with slow guys like Guerrero, Maidana, and that whole style. They kept him away from guys like Spaddy and perhaps even Khan because they knew defense is still related to reaction time, and everyone is human. The human eye can only react so quickly sometimes no matter how skilled you are. No one can avoid every shot from guys that fast. But, they wanted to market Floyd as superhuman defensively, so they picked opponents that would help that narrative.

This is the same exact situation. Floyd and Crawford are two of the best defensive fighters out there, no doubt, but they can still be hit, and still be forced into real fights, entertaining, competitive matchups, if they actually fight other top opponents with athleticism of their own. And as a boxing fan, that's what I want to see. Postol is a very nice name for Crawford to have on his resumé, but let's get real and talk about actual tests in the ring. Guys like Postol simply have not tested Crawford and they won't. Gamboa however did test Crawford until Crawford turned southpaw and used his longer reach to pick Gamboa coming in with check hooks, Gamboa and Crawford gave fans a great fight as opposed to the one-sided snoozers we have gotten ever since against less athletic opponents.

So we know Crawford can be in entertaining, competitive fights. That's what I want to see. Thurman for example is way faster than Postol and Molina, slower than Crawford but very athletic with decent hand speed. Was it Teddy Atlas who called Thurman the most athletic guy in boxing? I don't agree with that but he's definitely athletic, is the point. Thurman has good speed, he's just as big as Crawford, he actually has footwork unlike Postol etc, Thurman has shown a decent chin so far, and Thurman has more power than Crawford. And Crawford has a one inch reach advantage but nothing huge.

So you don't even need to talk about Spence. Just do the Thurman-Garcia winner, for example. Gamboa hurt Crawford, so we know Thurman can. Collazo hurt Thurman, so we know Crawford can. Gamboa hit Crawford... can Thurman? If so, great fight. If not, then Crawford proves something. Proving you can avoid faster-than-average punches like Thurman's, coming from some angles, in combination, from someone with footwork, means a lot more than proving you can outjuke a flat footed, slow guy like Postol.

I just want to see better opposition, period. If Thurman and every other athletic guy ducks Crawford, like people have ducked GGG, then I will give even more respect to Crawford. But right now it seems like he's the one who has been picking cherries 5 of the last 6 fights, who is happy to fight subpar opposition until a big money fight comes along. I want to see him really pursue these top guys. He is in his prime. Let's go already. Molina, Dierry Jean, etc are not competitive matchups.

You should start your own website.

[Shadoww702]

Bayless was horrible in that fight. I don't know if these refs are bought off, or if, because Byrd did the same thing for Ward vs Kovalev, it's just ingrained in certain black guys growing up that they're supposed to cheat to help other black guys in situations like that. I'm not saying it's a unique black thing or that most black people do it at all, I mean hell I wouldn't know, I'm just saying you do notice that trend recurring in certain situations with certain refs, so you wonder if maybe they're an exception, but a true exception where they are favoring race, even if most black people would never do that. But whatever the reason, they are definitely biased.

I notice it. Whats REALLY F'd is watch the SAME guys ref'ing a fight between two MexiCANS!!! They'll let then practically KILL each other...

[Shadoww702]

Not sure about that. Crawford could have come forward, as he does in many fights, but he was wary of Postol clipping him. I lost interest a bit in watching Crawford after that fight - he was too mobile and didn't engage enough. If Crawford is matched up with someone who will make him engage and is also athletic then I would be watching - like Spence or Thurman or Brook - even Porter.

So did I. That was a TERRIBLE, boring fight. I hope your right on it was just a bad style match-up. I know Crawford has GREAT skill but he's got a style that will drive Casual fans away and even die-hard fans like yourself. I think I bought more fights this year than I have in a long time. LOL and my FAVRITE ones were on CBS (Thurman/Porter) and Santa Cruz/Frampton...

January 2017 looks AWESOME!!!!

1-14-2017
Badou Jack vs. DeGale on Showtime.

1-28-2017
Carl Frampton vs. Leo Santa Cruz
Dejan Zlaticanin vs. Mikey Garcia (GREAT undercard)

[Sid-Knee]

Wow, a Crawford performance worth watching. He was as active as a fighter needs to be. Threw and landed plenty of punches. Because usually he's as dull as ditch water only throwing a small handful of punches and moving too much. Tonight though he landed plenty and stepped backwards having Molina walk into the counters instead of doing laps around the ring.

Impressed for once. Great performance.

[Corelone]

I'm a Bud fan, but Molina wasn't supposed to be there. Molina landed 2 good punches in 20 years. Then they put him in with another stumbler, Provodnikov (he barely beat old Jose Luis Castillo) and based on that performance he was elevated? Bud is a known talent and Molina is the poster boy for a face fighter. Molina can only catch somebody who comes to him, and Bud didn't give it to him. Nobody with two good legs will. Who didn't see this coming?

[Boskop]

Mismatch of the year

[GMAN SUPREME]

Mismatch of the year

wrong.that goes to cherry garcia vs vargas

[1hourRun]

GIF : Crawford vs. Molina - KO