Terence Crawford to fight on May 20 in Newark, New Jersey

By Boxing News - 02/23/2017 - Comments

Image: Terence Crawford to fight on May 20 in Newark, New Jersey

By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Arum has a venue for WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford’s next fight on May 20. Arum is going to stage the fight at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey with Newark. The fight will be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing.

Arum doesn’t have an opponent yet for Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs). It would be nice if Arum upgraded the level of opposition that Crawford is facing, because he’s had too many lackluster opponents lately. The last opponent that Arum matched Crawford against, John Molina, came into the fight with him having lost 3 out of his last 5 fights.

Molina had recently been soundly beaten by Adrien Broner. Crawford did not do a better job beating Molina than Broner did other than stopping in the 8th. It was not an exciting fight to watch for many boxing fans due to all the movement that Crawford was using in the fight.

It’s interesting that Crawford will be away from his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska for this fight. Perhaps one major reason for that is because 2016 Olympian Shakur Stevenson will be on the undercard in a 6-round fight making his debut. Stevenson, 19, recently signed with Top Rank, and he’s from Newark, New Jersey. I would appear that staging Crawford’s fight in Newark is for Stevenson to have his boxing fans come out and see him. This means that Crawford’s loyal fans from Omaha will need to travel to see him rather than being able to watch him fight at home. Can Stevenson pull in a lot of fans to fill up the Prudential Center on May 20? Let’s hope so. It might look bad if Crawford is fighting in front of a half empty Prudential Center.

“I think we’re zeroing in on a venue, which would be the Prudential Center in Newark but again, we have not finalized an opponent,” Arum said to RingTV.com about Crawford’s fight on May 20. “(Stevenson) would be on the card.”

Felix Diaz has been mentioned as a possible opponent for Crawford to fight next. That would be a good fight for Crawford, but also a risky one. Crawford really hasn’t faced anyone particularly dangerous. He’s been Ricky Burns and Viktor Postol, but neither of those guys had much power to speak of. They both have a close to a 50% knockout percentage. If Crawford were to face someone like Errol Spence, Danny Garcia or Keith Thurman, he would have to deal with having his chin tested. I don’t know if Crawford can deal with that kind of power.

I doubt Arum is going to ever match Crawford against any of those fighters. There’s too much risk involved for Crawford. They would be good fights to help build Crawford’s popularity, but I don’t see the fights happening due to the potential of him losing. I’d be surprised if Arum matches Crawford against Felix Diaz, because that’s a risky fight too.

Diaz would put some pressure on Crawford by chasing him down when he runs around the ring like he often does. Whoever Arum finds for Crawford, I’d like to see him stand and fight rather than running around the ring like we saw in his last two fights against Molina Jr. and Postol.