By Jeff Aronow: Terence Crawford predicts that Kell Brook will be surprised when he gets inside the ring with him this Saturday in their fight on ESPN. The unbeaten Crawford (36-0, 27 KOs) isn’t willing to concede that he will be the weaker of the two fighters.
Crawford, 33, does admit that former IBF welterweight champion Brook (39-2, 27 KOs) will probably have the size advantage when they get inside the ring in ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Crawford puts his unbeaten record on the line against the rejuvenated Brook, who is fully back from his injury-related losses to Errol Spence Jr and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Unlike some boxing fans, Crawford doesn’t view Brook as having lost anything from his defeats against GGG and Spence. He feels that enough time has gone by for Brook to recover from those losses fully.
Terence not sure if Brook is stronger
“Everybody has their opinions about Terence Crawford, and the type of opponents I’ve fought in the past and will have mixed emotions,” said Crawford to Yahoo Sports News when asked if he’s the best fighter in boxing at 147.
“Me personally in my heart, I feel I’m one of the best welterweights right now.
“I really can’t say until we share the ring together, given that he has had some time to recover,” said Crawford when asked if Brook has lost something since his losses to Errol Spence Jr and Gennadiy Golovkin.
Crawford has good enough punching power to get the job done, but only if he’s throwing in a combination form. That’s when he’s at his best. When Crawford is throwing single shots, his power isn’t formidable.
In Crawford’s last fight against Egidijus Kavaliauskas, we saw him take over when he began throwing combinations. Whether Crawford can get away with fighting like that against a hard puncher like Brook is unclear.
With Kavaliauskas, it looked like he got tired by the sixth round, and he couldn’t keep up with him.
It’s been a long time since Brook was in a fast-paced contest, and we don’t know how he’ll react if Crawford pressed him. In Brook’s loss to Errol Spence Jr in 2017, he was still punching hard late in the contest.
Spence was working him over with body shots and walking him down. It’s unclear whether Crawford is big enough or strong enough to do that to Brook.
Kell will be surprised
“Just be myself and don’t get caught up in the games that he plays,” said Crawford in giving his key victory against Brook. “Be natural and let it flow. He can try [and use his size].
“He might because he’s been all the way up to 160, and he is the bigger guy. Stronger? We don’t know until we step foot in the ring with him, but one thing is for sure, he will be surprised when he’s in the ring with me,” said Crawford.
It sounds like Crawford is going to slug with Brook and try and beat him at his own game. We’ll see if that tactic works for him. Sooner or later, Crawford will meet up with a fighter that he can’t outslug, and he’ll taste defeat if he sticks around long enough.
Thus far, Top Rank has been matching Crawford against opposition that lacked the talent to compete with him. But that match-making has been a double-edged sword.
While it’s allowed Crawford to keep winning, it’s hurt his popularity by keeping him an unknown with the casual boxing fans.
Brook is a step up for Crawford, and a good test to show whether he possesses the talent to precede forward to fights against Spence and Manny Pacquiao.
Crawford says Brook wasn’t prepared for the Spence fight
“When he fought Spence, he was coming right from the Gennadiy Golovkin fight right into Spence months later, and I felt his body wasn’t prepared to lose all that weight,” said Crawford.
“It was already broken down from Gennadiy Golovkin to fight Spence back to back in a tough fight like that. Given that he’s had time to relax and come back to boxing and get two victories, I feel he’s in a different space right now than before he fought Spence.
“He’s no pushover,” Crawford said of Brook. “I don’t think a lot of people expected him to put up the fights that he put up against those fighters. A lot of people can argue that he was beating GGG and Spence before he was stopped,” said Crawford.
Brook should have never fought Spence in 2017 after his injury loss to Gennadiy Golovkin in 2016.
Not only was it bad timing for Brook to take the fight because of his eye injury, but also because of the big weight drop he enured. Brook went from 160 to 147, and he wasn’t strong in the way he needed to be for him to have a chance of beating Spence.