Key #1 for Ray Beltran Dig That Body
By Lou Catalano
Ray Beltran should be firing body shots. A lot. Like, he should attempt to rip out Terence Crawford’s abdominal cavity with his gloved fists. He put in the body work against Ricky Burns, and frankly should have gotten the decision win.
Crawford is going to be trying to land hard shots to the head from a distance, and he’s got nasty hand speed and good power. Combine that with the fact that he can fight from the orthodox, southpaw, handstand and downward dog positions, and Beltran is going to have his hands full. He needs to take the steam out of Crawford’s punches, and his will.
It will be interesting to see if Crawford does go southpaw like he did with Yuriorkis Gamboa. He wasn’t doing all that well against him until he switched. But this shouldn’t matter to Beltran, the plan should stay the same. Crawford says he’s not overlooking Beltran, but talking about your future plans at higher weights is somewhat contradictory. Ray needs to let Crawford know early that he’s going to be in a grueling fight.
Beltran has almost no chance if Crawford finds his range and timing. Closing the gap and connecting to the body will give him the best shot at pulling this thing off. Let’s see if he can get it done in Crawford’s backyard.
Key #2 for Terence Crawford Counter the Jabs
Photo by Lawrence Lustig
By Lauren Pinkerton
It’s no surprise that a lightweight divisional fighter uses speed as a major component in his skill set, but Terence Crawford still seems to outpunch his opponents.
Ray Beltran knows this is going to be a major problem. In Crawford’s last fight against Yuriorkis Gamboa, the landed punch score was 146-82. Despite the fact that the fight ended in a glorious knockout, numbers like that will promise a solid UD every time (because fans love solid UD’s so much, right?).
The only way to stop those punch numbers from flying up is for Beltran to overcrowd Crawford with solid, hard, inside shots.
This is an obvious plan of attack for the Mexican. With that in mind, Crawford needs to execute two things to shut it down.
First is to counter Beltran’s range shots. This should be easy for Crawford, since he’s starting to establish himself as a counter-punching artist. His speed should allow him to see the punches coming, knock the straight down before flurrying back.
But here’s the second part: Crawford should only be countering back with straights. No stepping in with aggressive hooks or other inside attacks. Just the old 1-2 approach.
This plan should keep his punch numbers alive and well, while simultaneously keeping Beltran on the outside the whole time.
