By Gerardo Granados: The reader must know who Terence Crawford is but are casual fans acquainted with him or is it that he is only known by boxing purists? He was awarded by the BWAA and ESPN the 2014 fighter of the year award, but I disagree with the election, just as Boxingnews24 and The Ring Magazine elected Sergey Kovalev instead.
Have you ever seen a fighter brought to stardom by carefully matchmaking him and then see him lose once out of the protection of the promoter who created him? I´m not saying this is the case but I bet the reader can recall a recent example of a great boxer mirage for sure.
How come Gennady Golovkin, Sergey Kovalev and Keith Thurman all have an impeccable and also impressive fight record but still are being criticized and some even argue they have not defeated anyone worth to mention, but Crawford is pushed by boxing media as the next big thing? Maybe he is being groomed to take Floyd´s place once Mayweather finally retires, but he better not be rushed by greed and be allowed to mature as a fighter.
Crawford won a belt at 135 but never unified the lightweight division. That means he was a mere belt holder in that division and moved up winning a vacant belt, so before he defeats a genuine 140 champion I will remain skeptic and won’t consider him the true light welterweight Champion of the World.
Crawford has talent but to say he is the next great boxer might be too premature, in his last outing he was on the undercard of the Provodnikov vs Matthysse fight, so it is clear he has not reached a boxing star status yet. I refuse to bill him as the next great thing because the media hype and the influential promoters often get to create a mirage that looks too good to be true.
Please don’t get me wrong I do think Crawford has talent and good potential but I doubt he is the second coming of Pernell Whitaker or Roberto Duran. Is the reader so impressed with Terence to believe he can match what Whitaker and Duran did?
Maybe there is a rush for giving him the status of the next big cash cow before he is even ready, but if he is so great then why was he on the undercard instead to be the main event of the night?
I think there is something missing on Crawford but it is not his boxing skills or support of a big promoter. Maybe he needs to draw attention to him by himself, perhaps Adrien Broner could not be a good example to follow but he does draw the attention from fight fans.
If Terence Crawford receives so much praise from boxing media then Keith Thurman, Gennady Golovkin and Sergey Kovalev should get it too. The American boxing market is very important but maybe some executives are not aware of the talent and potential both Keith Thurman and Andre Ward already have.
Do the readers think Terence Crawford is being pushed to be the next big Cash Cow?
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