Terence Crawford: record, next fight and profile →
Renowned trainer Bob Santos has described a possible Terence “Bud” Crawford and Saul “Canelo” Alvarez showdown at 168 pounds as a “step too far” for the newly-crowned WBA junior middleweight champion.
As if two fighters nearing a title shot, bringing close to a 100 percent knockout rate isn’t enough, Saturday’s Vergil Ortiz-Serhii Bohachuk junior-middleweight bout now has the full attention of the sport’s new fight-making wizard, Saudi Arabia’s Turki Alalshikh.
Terence Crawford secured a unanimous decision victory over Israil Madrimov to steal his junior middleweight title Saturday at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, putting the Omaha, Nebraska-born fighter in the league of greats who have won belts in four different weight classes.
Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov both fought very, very well on Saturday night. So much so the only fair reason I can see anyone having for criticising Crawford is if they’re considering whether he can keep Saul “Canelo” Alvarez off him should they ever fight.
Any comparison between Terence Crawford and Marvin Hagler extends beyond just their ability to switch seamlessly from southpaw to orthodox. As well as that unique gift, Crawford shares with Hagler a hardiness and a spitefulness, not to mention a darkness, the kind found only in the eyes of boxers for whom fighting is second nature.
Before the perspiration from 12 rounds of battle with Israil Madrimov on Saturday night had even dried from Terence Crawford’s body, the new four-division champion and junior middleweight titleholder was asked about what comes next – and, specifically, if what’s coming will be a red-headed Guadalajaran cash cow.
Saul "Canelo" Alvarez doesn’t like to discuss future plans when he has a fight on his immediate schedule, and he emphasized how that point applies even when pressed by Turki Alalshikh.
LOS ANGELES – Before Israil Madrimov faced Terence Crawford, Madrimov’s manager Vadim Kornilov pleaded at the promotional press conference that he was “hoping that everything will be fair and neutral” on Saturday night.
European junior middleweight champion, Abass Baraou, paid more attention than most to the latest instalment of Riyadh Season which saw Terence Crawford step up from 147lbs and box his way to a decision victory over Israil Madrimov to claim the WBA title.
The opening bell rang at 12:54 a.m. on the East Coast. And by the time it did, I wasn’t just tired. I was tired of boxing. No matter how much you love a sport, there is such a thing as too much of it. And the American debut of Riyadh Season, even if made up of individual parts that were all appealing on paper, was simply too much boxing. The pay-per-view portion of the card at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles consisted of six fights and, in the end, 60 of a possible 68 rounds.