Terrence Crawford Announces Himself At 147lbs

My friend’s over at Beyond The Ropes Podcast asked me last week ” When your reporting and writing about boxing do you still get as excited about fights and fighters ” my answer was that you need to become sceptical/cynical to keep yourself honest and to make sure your not caught up in the hype , an answer i firmly believe in , well that is until Terrance Bud Crawford fights .

On Saturday night the boxing world got it’s first glimpse of Terrence Crawford at 147lbs (Welterweight) when he took on the tenacious Australian and WBO World Champion Jeff Horn . I for one was a bit worried about seeing Crawford at 147lbs as I thought he would be to small to mix it with the best at the weight but those fears were soon put to bed .

Jeff Horn hadn’t had the best of build up’s to this fight starting with car crashes , complaints about the Top Rank Gym and then to miss weight at first attempt , you got the feeling Horn was looking for excuses before the fight even started .

Right from the the first bell anybody that had watched Crawford before could see how this fight was going to go . Even though Horn did have some success in the first round you could see that as soon as Crawford found his range he would systematically break Horn down . It is hard to say what Bud Crawford’s best asset is but finding range is definitely one of them and it took him all of two rounds to figure out Horn , something Manny Pacquiao didn’t really manage to do over 12 rounds . Jeff Horn is not a flashy , skilful boxer but he uses his massive frame to rough up and bully opponents something Crawford nullified as any time the big Australian tried to close the gap Crawford continually timed him coming in and walked him onto some big straight left hands .

Crawford looked like a man who was really enjoying himself in the ring and as each round past his dominance grew , Horn made up for his lack of skill with a massive heart , but against a killer like Crawford that will only get you so far . In round eight Crawford went into DEFCON 5 and it was painfully beautiful to watch . Horn was thought to be the bigger , stronger man before this fight but the way in which Crawford manhandled him proved that this kid belongs at 147lbs . Every single mistake Horn made was punished by heavy one , two even three accurate power punches , each time Horn’s head snapped back , his face was swelling badly and he had lost eight out of eight rounds . As they came out for the ninth round i was thinking Horn’s corner need to get him out of there as he was being totally outclassed , but Bud took that choice away when he tee’d off again on Horn landing big punches in bunches forcing the Australian to hit the canvas . Horn beat the count but as Crawford came in for the kill again the Ref put Horn out of his misery and it has to be said it was very good refereeing by Robert Byrd .

So what did we learn about about Terrence Crawford ?

Personally I didn’t learn much about Crawford other than he will not be outmuscled by any Welterweight , not even Errol Spence . I firmly believe that Crawford is the P4P No1 and Saturday night just reaffirmed that for me . The way in which he can time opponents reminds me of Floyd Mayweather , the way in which he can switch from Orthodox to southpaw in the blink of an eye and look just as comfortable has shades of Shane Mosley and with the killer instinct of a young Manny Pacquiao , Bud Crawford really is the real deal now he just need that elite level win to prove it . For me the best fight in boxing that can be made in boxing is IBF Champion Errol Spence Jnr and Terrence Crawford and after a slow couple of years for the Welterweight division it owes us this fight .