Editorials

What’s Next for Terence Crawford?

The Jr. Welterweight unification bout between Terence “Bud” Crawford and Viktor “The Iceman” Postol brought out 7,027 fans to the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday night in Las Vegas.

Terence Crawford - Mikey Williams Photo by Mikey Williams/Top Rank

The Jr. Welterweight unification bout between Terence “Bud” Crawford and Viktor “The Iceman” Postol brought out 7,027 fans to the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday night in Las Vegas.

The venue was packed with a crowd largely in favor of Crawford–chanting “Omaha-Omaha!” for a majority of the fight. Crawford outclassed Postol in the bout with a dominating performance and walked away with both the WBC and WBO Jr. Welterweight titles.

Crawford proved yet again that he deserves to be ranked as one of the top pound-for-pound boxers in the world. Postol is a tough, resilient warrior and before Saturday he was an undefeated champion–Crawford performed impeccably and won with ease (or what looked like ease).

Judges Guido Cavalleri and Don Trella scored the bout 118-107, while Dave Moretti had it 117-108, all in favor of Crawford.

Crawford is known to switch back and forth between the orthodox and southpaw stance, but he started the fight in the conventional stance for about 20 seconds and fought the rest of the night as a southpaw.

We found out later that this was his plan going into the fight. Though many may complain that it wasn’t the most exciting fight to watch, Crawford displayed masterful speed, ring IQ and boxing technique.

Crawford started out fighting cautiously in the beginning rounds, which is typical for the Omaha native, doing his best to get a feel for Postol’s length and adjusting to his style accordingly. Postol is an awkward fighter, he is lengthy and tall, but Crawford was able to get inside just enough to land clean and concise punches and avoid too much in return.

In the fourth round, Crawford started to let his hands go and was able to finally find his rhythm. Crawford dropped Postol twice in the fifth round, the first was more of a tangle of feet but the Postol admitted he was hurt after the second knockdown.

Postol is normally a high-output puncher but Saturday night he only threw 244 punches, landing only 83 of those. Crawford was able to land 141 of 388 punches–107 of 216 of those being power punches, which was the different maker.

Fighting in the southpaw stance for the entirety of the bout allowed Crawford to neutralize Postol’s jab–which was key because Postol is said to have one of the most effective jabs in the 140-pound division, if not in all of boxing. By neutralizing Postol’s jab, Crawford was able to create space to land several devastating left hands.

Before the fight, many said the outcome would determine who the king of the Jr. welterweight division is–and now we know. Crawford was able to pick Postol apart and frustrate him enough to throw him off his game–walking away with a unanimous-decision victory. With his impressive performance, that leaves just one question: What’s next for Terence Crawford?

Pacman Crawford

Looking at the 140-pound division currently, it doesn’t seem as if anyone could give Bud problems. But, there is a matchup that is already buzzing, a fight against Manny Pacquiao. After a short and sweet retirement, Pacquiao is in need of an opponent for his “comeback” on November 5 in Las Vegas.

Both fighters are under Bob Arum so on the promotional side, it would be easy to negotiate. There are other factors that come into play though.

Whether or not Pacquiao wants to fight at 140 remains to be seen, because he hasn’t fought at this weight since 2009 and is it smart for Top Rank to put two of their best pound-for-pound fighters in the ring against each other.

Pacquiao’s fight announcement is said to happen within the next couple of weeks so we will find out if this fight will happen soon enough.

As of now, Crawford vs. Pacquiao would be a great matchup for both fighters and a good matchup for the fans as well. However, from Saturday night’s performance it’s clear to see that Crawford is continuing to move up in the boxing world.

Whomever his next opponent, it will be exciting to watch Crawford become more and more dominant and work towards becoming the face of boxing.

Comments
To Top