By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford came close to landing a knockout right hook at Friday’s weigh-in after challenger Jose Benavidez Jr. shoved him during the face off. Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) immediately stepped forward after being pushed and threw a lethal-looking right hook that the 26-year-old Benavidez Jr. (27-0, 18 KOs) just barely avoided by leaning backwards in the nick of time to escape injury.
The punch from Crawford might have grazed the chin of Benavidez. In looking at a replay of the punch, it looked like it might have grazed Benavidez’s whiskers, who showed quick reflexes. Benavidez must have been expecting Crawford to lead with his left hook from having watched a lot of his fights, because that’s been one of his main weapons in his fights. Crawford might want to come up with a different battle strategy rather than throwing lead left hooks on Saturday night, because Benavidez appears to have him figured out.
Benavidez looked uneasy after the incident. I don’t think he fully realized that Crawford would swing on him after a simple shove. The power that Crawford put into the shot was clearly maximum power. If that shot had connected, it would have been lights out for Benavidez, and the fight might have been canceled. You can’t have a fighter getting knocked out during a weigh-in and then fighting the next night. In the future, someone needs to make they keep close tabs on Crawford to make sure he doesn’t start swinging on his opponents if they make the mistake of giving him a simple shove at the weigh-ins. When you have a fighter throwing a punch with his bare knuckles, it could have disastrous consequences for the receiver of the blow. This didn’t looked staged at all. They both looked like they hated each other, and Crawford wasn’t messing around.
It’s unclear why WBO welterweight champion Crawford chose to escalate things when he was merely pushed, which is a common thing during the fighters during stare downs. The customary shove is now become more of many weigh-ins. We see it all the time, even with superstars like Saul Canelo Alvarez. But what you don’t see a lot is fighters responding to shoves by swinging for the stars, because that would result in injury and the canceling of a fight. It looks like Crawford lost his cool completely and forgot what was at stake for this fight this Saturday night against #14 fringe contender Benavidez on ESPN at the Chi Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
With the weigh-ins becoming so predictable nowadays with the shoving, the fighters are going to need to come up with a different strategy to get the boxing fans excited. Perhaps the slugging that Crawford did today might be one way of getting fans up for his fights or perhaps a free for all involving both teams throwing punches. The only good thing about today’s incident is it didn’t look staged on Crawford’s part. He just looked like someone who wasn’t going to take being shoved, so he swung on Benavidez. Still, he can’t be throwing punches at his opponents outside of the ring unless he wants to risk having his fights canceled. All it takes is one guy getting knocked cold or suffering a cut and then it’s going to be costly with the fight being canceled.
The dislike between Crawford and Benavidez isn’t on the level of Conor McGregor and Khabib, thankfully. It would be a shame to see Crawford jump into the audience and start flailing on someone that had talked trash to him in the past. What would be bad is if Crawford goes berserk on Saturday night and starts fouling or if he does something after the fight. It would be good if Top Rank makes sure they have plenty of security on hand t make sure that nothing happens before, during and after the fight. It would be a shame if things escalate from a simple fight to more of a street fight. Crawford needs to put things in perspective and realize that he’s facing a guy that is leagues below his level in terms of talent. He doesn’t need to put himself at his level by getting angry over simple theatrics.
Crawford-Benavidez badly needed Friday’s extracurricular activity to generate some buzz about the fight, as few boxing fans have been talking about it this week. The problem is Crawford is fighting a guy that isn’t in his league, again. Crawford’s last four fights have been mismatches against guys that stood no chance of beating him whatsoever, and Saturday’s fight against Benavidez is a continuation of the process unfortunately. Selling the mismatch between Crawford and Benavidez with some physical stuff at the weigh-in isn’t a bad thing. It’s just that Crawford looked dead serious with the right hook that he attempted to hit Benavidez with. If that shot hand landed, it would be game over. There would be no coming back from that punch by Benavidez. He would have been knocked out and the fight would have been canceled.
Crawford is going to need to control his emotions on Saturday and for future weigh-ins. The guy has got to get his anger under control somehow or else he’s going to struggle. This should be an easy fight for Crawford on paper, because Benavidez has fought no one during his career other than soft opposition. He was beaten by Mauricio Herrera in 2014, but they robbed the guy in the fans’ eyes. Herrera got the better of the Top Rank promoted Benavidez all night long, but at the end of the night, the judges failed to give him the victory. It was seen as a robbery by the boxing world. If Benavidez had come back from that fight to beat some talented fighters, it wouldn’t be so bad, but he’s failed to do that. Benavidez’s opposition since the Herrera fight has been absolutely woeful. Judge for yourself. Here are the fighters that Benavidez has fought in the last four years since his gift decision over Herrera:
– Frank Rojas
– Matthew Strode
– Francisco Santana
– Sidney Siqueira
– Jorge Paez Jr
Benavidez hasn’t fought anyone to show that he’s improved since his fight with Herrera, and you have to assume that his promoters realize that he’s not someone that can be trusted against top level opposition.
Weigh-in results:
Crawford vs. Benavidez will be televised on ESPN and ESPN Deportes starting at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.
• Terence Crawford 145.4 lbs vs. Jose Benavidez Jr. 145 lbs
(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank)
Crawford will be defending his WBO welterweight world strap against Benavidez in a voluntary defense.
2016 Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson weighed in at 128 lbs for hi 10 round fight against Viorel Simion. For his part, he weighed in at 128.4 lbs for their fight at super featherweight.
Other weights on the card
• Carlos Adames 153.6 lbs vs. Joshua Conley 155.4 lbs
• Mikaela Mayer 129.6 lbs vs. Vanessa Bradford 128.8 lbs
• Steve Nelson 171.6 lbs vs. Oscar Riojas 171 lbs
• Mike Alvarado 142.2 lbs vs. Robbie Cannon 141.8 lbs
• Ismail Muwendo 131.2 lbs vs. Andre Wilson 130.4 lbs
• Jose Valenzuela 128 lbs vs. Hugo Rodriguez 124.8 lbs
• Keeshawn Williams 144.2 lbs vs. Ramel Snegur 143.2 lbs
Remaining tickets to this world championship event, priced at $178, $103, $63, and $38, not including applicable fees, can be purchased at the CHI Health Center Omaha box office, all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 800-745-3000, or online at ticketmaster.com.
