By Chris Williams: In a role reversal, WBO junior middleweight champion Patrick Teixeira (31-1, 22 KOs) is offering Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) a crack at his title if he’s willing to move up to 154 to challenge him.
Teixeira is confident that he’ll defeat Crawford and sees that fight happening. Unless Teixeira knows something that the fans aren’t aware of, it’s not likely that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum will let Crawford face him.
Arum mentioned Kell Brook as one of the options that he would look to match Crawford against if he can’t get Manny Pacquiao to face him. Brook has a large following of British fans in the UK, which would make for a compelling clash between him and Crawford.
Teixeira can make good money fighting Crawford
It’s a good idea for Teixeira to face Crawford for the biggest money fight possible rather than defending his WBO 154-lb title against #1 contender Brian Castano. There’s an excellent chance that Castano beats Teixeira, and it wouldn’t be a big money fight.
That’s why it makes sense for Teixeira to offer a title shot against Crawford because it’ll make money. It won’t be pay-per-view though, as Crawford needs a big name as his opponent for that. He’s tried to fight on PPV twice in his career against Amir Khan and Viktor Postol, and in both cases, it failed to bring in respectable numbers.
With Top Rank with no options for a fight for Crawford in 2020 other than Kell Brook and Yordenis Ugas, Teixeira would be an excellent fight for Bud. What we don’t know is if Crawford would be willing t take the risk.
Crawford is starting to age, and he’s still not fought any of the quality welterweights since moving up to the division in 2018. Since moving up to 147, Crawford has beaten these three fighters:
- Amir Khan
- Jose Benavidez
- Jeff Horn
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
The 29-year-old Golden Boy promoted Teixeira recently captured the World Boxing Organization 154lb strap last November in beating Carlos Adames by an upset 12 round unanimous decision in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a close win for the Brazilian Teixeira, who got the nod on the judges’ scorecards by the scores 116-111, 114-113 and 114-113.
Rather than defend his WBO junior middleweight title unpopular contenders in the top 15 rankings, Teixeira wants a big name, and he feels that Crawford would be an exciting match-up.
Patrick Teixeira is throwing Bud a bone
Teixeira predicts that the boxing public would love to see him, and the 32-year-old Crawford battle it out with his WBO 154-lb belt on the line. It would give Crawford a chance to capture his fourth division world title and provide him with someone to fight.
Recently, Crawford’s promoted Bob Arum of Top Rank said he was in negotiations with Manny Pacquiao to set-up a Pacquiao-Crawford fight in 2020, but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Arum admits now that none of the Middle East countries have stepped up to offer to host the Pacquiao vs. Crawford fight, which means the battle won’t happen in 2020.
“I think a fight with him would be terrific for boxing,” Teixeira said to The Ring. “Of course, he’s in a smaller weight class so we would probably have to meet at 154, but I think it would be a big fight for the both of us, and one that hardcore fans are really going to enjoy.”
Of the four 154-pound world champions, Teixeira is seen as the weakest of the bunch, and he gives Crawford his best chance of winning a title. If Crawford had to fight the other belt holders – Jeison Rosario, Erislandy Lara or Jermell Charlo, he could find himself in a situation where he may lose to one or even all of them. You never know, though.
Crawford is already having problems at 147
Going up to 154 will put Crawford’s chin at risk of being dented by some of these guys. Teixeira punches hard enough for him to knockout Crawford if he lands enough of his shots.
Maybe Crawford could dazzle the more significant and stronger Rosario, Lara, and Charlo the way he’s done against the welterweights. Crawford was hurt repeatedly by his last opponent Egidijus Kavaliauskas at 147 last December, and that’s a bad omen.
That was the first time Crawford fought a slugger at 147, and Kavaliauskas decked him in the fifth.
Although the referee blew the call by ruling it a slip, the fans saw for themselves the truth of the matter in watching it on slow-motion replay. Crawford got nailed by ‘The Mean Machine’ and went down like a sack of potatoes.
It was kind of sad to see Crawford in denial about the knockdown afterward, denying it happened and equally in denial about being hurt several times.
Teixeira: I’ll defeat Crawford
“I want to fight Crawford,” said Teixeira. “I’d be delighted to get that fight, and I think there’s a great chance of that fight taking place. I see myself outpointing Crawford. It’s going to be really hard to knock out a guy like Crawford.
“I have a title, and I don’t want to defend the belt against just any random guy, I want to fight the best there is, and Terence Crawford is that man,” said Teixeira.
If Teixeira attacks Crawford like he did Carlos Adames, he could beat him, but it won’t be easy. Crawford will use every trick in the book to try and win, and Teixeira would need to deal with him working a lot of different things to win. However, there are only so many things Crawford can try, though. He likes to talk about he can adapt a ton of times in his fights, but the reality is, he can’t. The stuff Crawford generally does to adapt and confuse his opponents are these things:
- Changing stances
- Throwing more jabs
- Going on the attack
- Jabbing
- Throwing uppercuts
This is all standard stuff, but the way Crawford talks, he’s working with rocket science. The things Crawford does to adapt are no different from any other fighter, but Crawford talks more about it than other fighters do.
Why Crawford WON’T fight Teixeira 
There are two reasons why Crawford probably won’t take the fight with Teixeira, and those are as follows: Teixeira has a high work rate and is capable of unloading with nonstop punches with respectable power.
Secondly, Teixeira isn’t a big name, so there’s no upside for Crawford if he beats him. It would be risky for Crawford to take the fight with the 5’11 1/2″ Teixeira because he could lose to the bigger fighter.
Even if Crawford were to win, he would be viewed as cherry-picking another world title because Teixeira isn’t the best at 154. If Crawford wins, he’ll also be pressured by fans to take on the good champions at junior middleweight Jermell Charlo, Lara, and Jeison Rosario.
Those guys not only have power and size, but they can box, and they do the same things Crawford can do.
Another reason why Crawford won’t fight Teixeira is that he’s chasing fights against Pacquiao and Errol Spence Jr. He can’t get battles against them if he’s at 154.
Teixeira would be a hard fight for Crawford, and he may not be able to handle getting hit as many times as he would by the Brazilian fighter.
