By Chris Williams: Ryan Garcia says welterweight champion Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford doesn’t have the “whole package” that he needs to be a big name. Ryan states that if he was around Crawford, he could help him with his outside of the ring persona.
Ryan says Crawford just focuses on his boxing and doesn’t work on the outside of the ring stuff, which is even more important.
The 21-year-old lightweight contender Ryan (20-0, 17 KOs) doesn’t say what he would try and change in Crawford’s personality to make him more popular. One guess is Ryan would insist that Crawford post a lot more on social media, and have him call out the other top welterweights on a daily basis. Those are basic things that Ryan has been doing for a while.
Aside from that, Crawford would need to do something of these things to get more attention on himself:
- Trash talk all the top fighters
- Hire a PR guy to help build his image
- Give LOTS of interviews
- Dress well
- Take acting classes
It’s doubtful that Crawford does any of those things. At 32, he’s kind of set in his ways, and he’s not likely to change. The image-building stuff should have been done by Crawford years ago.
Crawford lacks the whole package
“You know who’s special? Crawford,” said Ryan Garcia to Fighthype. “He just doesn’t have the whole package, sadly not, but it’s OK because he’s a great fighter. Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about,” Ryan said when asked if he meant that Crawford lacks the outside of the ring persona.
“If he had me around him, I could find a way to get him going on that aspect. But he doesn’t see value in me. He only sees boxing right now, which is fine. For some people, that’s the route they want to go. But if he were really smart, he would have asked somebody on how to figure it out, and I would be like, Crawford, show me some moves. I’m never a hater; you know what I mean? That’s just how I see it,” said Garcia.
Maybe Crawford should start hanging with Ryan so that he can give him a few tips to help develop his persona. As long as Crawford is willing to listen to a fighter 11 years younger than him in 21-year-old Ryan, it could work out.
It would be interesting to see Ryan coaching Crawford on how to ‘over the top.’ In addition to whatever pearls of wisdom Ryan could give Crawford, it might require acting classes for him to take his new persona to the next level. Look at the professional wrestlers. They develop characters, and they act the part, and the young fans love it. It must be challenging to stay in style the whole time, but they do it, and it works for them.
Ryan Garcia: Crawford beats Spence
“But he’s a beast,” Ryan said of Crawford. “I watch Crawford, and I’m trying to take some of his moves because I like some things. ‘Oh, that could be very useful.’ I wouldn’t go southpaw as much as him. And I would find a southpaw position to hurt somebody, but I wouldn’t be a southpaw. I favor talent and technical [skills],” said Ryan when asked if he’d pick Crawford to beat Spence.
“And I think Crawford beats Spence. Spence is a beast, and he’s as big as f***. That’s the one thing he has going for him is his size on Crawford. But Crawford has speed, power, ring IQ. He has it all. Like I said, the only thing he’s missing is what I already named,” said Ryan.
Right now, it’s a little unfair to for Ryan to be talking about Spence and Crawford fighting each other. With Spence having been involved in a terrible car crash last October, it’s too easy to pick Crawford to beat him. It’s not even fair. A guy gets in a car crash, and you’re making a prediction on him fighting someone. It doesn’t make a lot of sense.
If Crawford had been in a car crash, it wouldn’t be fair to him to predict one of his fights, especially if he does not sound like he’s OK. We need to wait and see how Spence performs when he returns to the ring in a tune-up before we start making predictions on him and Crawford.
Spence never gave me credit – Ryan Garcia
“Look, Floyd [Mayweather Jr.] had everything; speed, power, IQ, and he had that s***. Do you know what I mean? He had everything. Crawford doesn’t have that. So he’s going to beat Spence, and he’s going to punish him. I like Spence. But Spence never gave me my credit either.
“He always kind of talked s*** about me low-key. Not big-time, but he was like, ‘He just tries to go fast on the bags all the time.’ They don’t get the whole thing. They don’t get s***, and I’m tired of explaining s*** to people. So, Crawford is going to f*** Spence,” said Ryan.
Gee, so Spence didn’t give Ryan credit, and now he’s picking Crawford to beat him. It makes you wonder if the main reason for Ryan choosing Crawford to beat Spence is because he’s bitter about him not being validated.
If Spence hasn’t been smothering Ryan with compliments, it’s easy to see why. Ryan doesn’t have the same variety of punches that Spence and other top fighters possess. You hate to say Ryan is one-dimensional on offense, but he looks that way.
All Ryan seems to throw are left hooks, and he hasn’t developed his jab or right hand to where they’re a weapon. He reminds me of Razor Ruddock, a fighter who would telegraph his left hooks. Yeah, the punch was lethal when he would land it, but guys like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis destroyed him.
