Crawford: Ricky Burns has all of Scotland depending on him

By Boxing News - 02/26/2014 - Comments

burns5By Scott Gilfoid: #1 WBO Terence Crawford (22-0, 16 KO’s) is totally unfazed by Matchroom Sport promoter Eddie Hearn flapping his gums about how 13,000 fans will be cheering madly for WBO lightweight champion Ricky Burns (36-2-1, 11 KO’s) this Saturday in their fight at the Scottish Exhibition Centre, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. Hearn thinks that Crawford will be unnerved by the screaming from the Scottish crowd, and that i turn will cause him to lose the fight.

Crawford had this to say about the pro-Burns crowd: “Ricky has got the whole of Scotland depending on him. In the States we’ve got lots of world champions. In Scotland there’s only one – Ricky Burns. The whole country is riding on Ricky because without him what is Scotland? The fans won’t like it, but I am fine…What can they do apart from yell and scream?”

Wow, Crawford is really unleashing the dogs of war in analyzing Burns and his loving Scottish fans. Crawford definitely isn’t holding himself back in telling it like it is about Burns and his fans, is he?

Crawford should be a little concerned on Saturday. If I was Crawford, I’d make a hasty exit after the fight because I’d be worried about lingering in the ring too long with a lot of upset fans. Beating Burns might make some of his fans angry, and it would be best for Crawford to get going as quickly as possible. Crawford doesn’t want to get brained by a flying projectiles, and it would be best not to be an inviting target by sticking around.

But it’s difficult to see Burns’ fans being able to motivate him enough to find the talent to beat a guy as good as Crawford. I know fans can help fighters compete at a higher level, but I don’t see them being able to give Burns the super human talent that he will need to beat someone like Crawford. There’s too wide of a gulf in talent that separates Burns and Crawford, and if anything, Burns will only end up absorbing more punishment by hanging around in a motivated state for the entire fight.

If Crawford starts whipping Burns too badly, I hope the voice of reason creeps into the mind of Burns’ trainer Billy Nelson so that he throws in the white towel if the fight gets too one-sided. He’s going to have realize at some point, hopefully early on, that Burns won’t be able to rally in this fight like he did against Jose Gonzalez last year to get a win. It’s going to take a little intuition on Nelson’s part to realize that Burns is not going to be able to come back. Believe me, once Crawford jumps out to a big lead in this fight, there won’t be any coming back for Burns. Nelson should have the towel handy to throw into the ring.



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