By Gerardo Granados: Last Saturday night the new unified WBC-WBO and also new Ring Magazine Champion undefeated light welterweight Terence “Bud” Crawford put up a boxing counter-punching clinic to outbox, outsmart, outpoint and outclass a clueless Viktor Postol. The official scorecards had Crawford winning by unanimous decision (118-107 twice and 117-108); I didn’t give Postol a single round.
Crawford used his speed and footwork to take total control since the first round. It is funny how fight fans criticize Guillermo Rigondeaux but Terence Crawford gets a pass for boxing the exact same way. As far for boxing counter-punching skills it was a superb exhibition, as for entertainment value it was not worth the pay per view cost.
Postol had the wrong game plan and never was able to adjust; Viktor tried the same the entire fight without any success. Hesitant to even throw his jab, chasing but not cutting off the ring walked straight to Crawford, who perfectly timed him and constantly moved out of fighting range and steal the first rounds landing only a couple of punches.
What Postol should have done is now totally irrelevant.
At the light welter division, there might not be much left for Crawford. Lucas Matthysse quit against Postol so it can’t be a good option. Adrien Broner´s legal troubles and also high economical pretensions could eliminate him as a possible opponent. Even to dig deep into the lightweight division can’t bring any solid opponent for Crawford.
I wonder if Bud should move up for his next bout. Terence isn’t a small 140-pound fighter; I can see him competing without any trouble against the top ten welterweights, but, in this era of Divas who would dare to take the risk to fight against him?
The welterweight division is stacked with talent. If Senator Manny Pacquiao does come back next November, it would be great to see him fight against Crawford, but I would be surprised if he took this type of high-risk fight at 37 years of age. The Pacman is gone now, the fearless ring warrior no longer exists but for sure Pacquiao does have the tools to defeat Crawford with his power, speed, mobility and weird angles.
From the current welterweight belt holders, the only one that I think that would take the risk to fight against Crawford is WBA Jessie Vargas.
If Danny Garcia vacated his light welter strap to avoid Viktor Postol, then I simply cannot see his father Angel Garcia allowing his son to defend his welter strap against Terence Crawford, but instead, cherry pick another tailor made past prime slow fighter for his son next.
Kell Brook is busy trying to defeat the middleweight monster that scares the so-called division big names, so a fight against him is highly unprofitable.
Tim Bradley would be a good test for Crawford but not on Pay Per View for me.
The official Pay Per View numbers haven’t been announced yet. But for a fight between the two best available light welters, those numbers should be high. If those numbers are low, then it could mean that Crawford could struggle to become a huge earner for the Boxing Industry.
Meanwhile, Erislandy Lara is criticized for his lack of killer instinct; Terence Crawford gets a pass for doing pretty much the same. I will be honest, I am not eager to watch Crawford fight again anytime soon, even less to pay an expensive pay per view fee to see him fight the way he did last night.
Will Crawford become the next Sugar Ray Leonard? Will Terence become Floyd Mayweather Jr cash cow status heir? Will Bud become only the boxing purist favorite but fail to attract the rest of fans due his boring boxing style? I will leave to the readers to answer those questions.
For sure Crawford does have an immense boxing talent but lacks the charismatic personality to go along with it. So either he adjusts into a more fan friendly boxer-puncher or might as well end up like Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Yes, boxing is like jazz, but many of us fight fans don’t even listen to Jazz.
I think that what is next for Crawford is to make little adjustments to have the possibility to become the next great boxer of his era. But what about the readers, what is next for Bud?