Terence Crawford’s fight on August 3rd could be a last hurrah for him against the hard-hitter WBA junior middleweight champion Israil Madrimov in Los Angeles.
This fight could be Crawford’s swan song unless he finds a working time machine to send him back a decade.
Them lightning-fast legs that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) used when he was younger to escape punishment are gone.
He’s 36 now, and facing a young killer with Golovkin-esque power, and this isn’t the type of guy that an older guy like Crawford can afford to go to war with. Madrimov is easily the biggest puncher in the 154-lb division, and I think you can argue that he hits harder than fighters at 168, like Canelo Alvarez.
Fading Quicksilver
Crawford’s quicksilver footwork ain’t nowhere to be seen, and fights like his feet are stuck in waist-deep quicksand. What we’ve seen lately is Crawford is forced to trade heavy shots with his opponents and defend on his counter-punching.
The only way he wins now is by out-punching his opposition, and a big factor in why he’s still winning is his low-level competition. Crawford has been very calculated in his choice of opposition since 2016.
Easy Targets
– Errol Spence Jr: A car crash survivor. Check. Rusty from a 17-month layoff. Check.
– David Avanesyan: A virtual unknown.
– Shawn Porter: This guy was ancient history
– Kell Brook: *See above.
Madrimov: The Kryptonite
Israil Madrimov has the kind of power that can punch holes through a brick wall, and he’s still young at 29. He is easily the biggest puncher that Crawford has ever fought in his 16-year professional career.
Madrimov is kryptonite for what’s left of Crawford, who is clearly hanging around for the dough. The way Madrimov looked in his fifth-round knockout victory over Magomed Kurbanov was scary. How long will Crawford last getting hit by similar shots from Madrimov?
This is a fight that Crawford likely wouldn’t be taking, but he’s doing it because it’s one that pays. His Excellency Turki Alalshikh is putting on the August 3rd card, and it’s obviously one that Crawford is going to get a lot of dough.
If not for that, I don’t think Crawford would want anything to do with a young puncher like Madrimov because he hits too hard, and Terence is on the wrong side of 30 to be fighting this kind of knockout artist.