By Norm Frauenheim –
LOS ANGELES — Terence Crawford says this is his era. That’s hard to dispute. Hard to prove, too.
All of the numbers on his resume support his claim. He’s been an undisputed champion in two divisions, welterweight and junior-welter. He’s unbeaten. He has scored eleven straight knockouts. He’s been at the top of the pound-for-pound debate for years. Other contenders emerge, then fall away. But Crawford is always there, consistently among the top five.
Yet, the critics are always there, too, persistent with doubts about the quality of Crawford’s opposition or the frequency of his fights. It’s a debate that has followed him throughout his career. It’s a debate, too, that is a simple matter of perspective and perhaps timing. There’s a reason for all of the questions about his opponents. Crawford made them look bad. From Jose Benavidez Jr. to Shawn Porter to Errol Spence Jr., he’s blown them all away.
In a different time or perhaps in a different era, would he have exhibited the same kind of dominance? Maybe, maybe not. But he can’t choose the time. He can only make it his own. Yet, the chance that he’s right — that this is in fact his era — is there as it never has been because of the discussion generated by that very question.
Crawford can answer in his own way as he begins another chapter in his career amid fascinating talk about whether he could have held his own in a different era, the one writer George Kimball so perfectly described in his book, Four Kings.
It’s fair to wonder whether Crawford could have been a Fifth King. We’ll never know. But Crawford’s brilliant dominance in his time has become almost singular. Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Marvin Hagler — Kimball’s Four Kings — had each other. Their four-sided rivalry in the 1970s and 1980s cemented their legends.
Crawford only has himself. He’s a fighter without a rivalry in a sport known for the one rivalry that has become a historical reference point. Muhammad Ali needed Joe Frazier; Frazier needed Ali.
Crawford has yet to find that defining kind of rival. Look at his record. There are no rematches. Perhaps, he’ll fight Spence for a second time. But Crawford’s thorough beatdown of Spence in a timeless exhibition of instinct and skill in July of last year left little reason to want another one.
Crawford’s dominance is double edged. He’s known as a finisher for what he does to opponents within 12 rounds. But he also finishes careers. Benavidez, once a prodigy, was never the same fighter after Crawford stopped him in the 12th in Omaha in 2018. Porter retired after Crawford forced him to surrender after the 10th. Spence still hasn’t fought since suffering a ninth round stoppage last July.
There are no rivals in Crawford’s career. He finishes them before they can become one.
That’s why, perhaps, he searches for new ways to challenge himself and prove his critics wrong. He’s fighting Saturday (pay-per-view card starts at 1:30 pm ET/4:30 pm on DAZN, ESPN+, PPV.com) in Los Angeles for a fourth title at a fourth weight against a 154-pound Uzbek, junior-middleweight champion Israil Madrimov, in a stadium, BMO, built on real estate — the Sports Arena — known for much of LA’s rich boxing history.
Madrimov, mostly unknown to LA’s Mexican fan base, is big and athletic. A former gymnast, he did a back flip during media workouts at the San Monica pier this week in the build-up for the first Saudi-staged card in the Riyadh Season.
The promotional marketing suggests he has enough size and power to upset Crawford. It’s intriguing, mostly because Crawford is attempting to win another belt in a step up in weight against a fighter expected to be dangerous, especially in the early rounds. In a face-off after Thursday’s final news conference, however, Crawford looked like the bigger man.
“A lot of people forgetting that I punch hard, and I’m strong too,’’ said Crawford, whose biggest rival has always been the skeptics among fans and media. “A lot of people are over-thinking this whole fight. They’re thinking ‘He’s the bigger guy, he’s the stronger guy’ especially since I’m moving up in weight.’’
It’s the kind of thinking Crawford hopes to hear much more of, perhaps next year in a proposed fight against super-middleweight champion Canelo Álvarez. Saudi Prince and promoter, Turki Alalshikh, wants to put together a Crawford-Canelo fight for a defining confrontation, one that could decide who is boxing’s greatest fighter in the post-Floyd Mayweather era.
Crawford, who will be 37 years-old on Sept. 28, already believes he’s that fighter, the best he says of his era and maybe in any other. Time is perhaps his biggest and only rival. It will be there, all over again, in another chance to make this time his time Saturday.
NOTES
Jaime Munguia will come back from a loss at super-middleweight to Canelo on Sept. 20 at Desert Diamond Area undefeated Erik Bazinyan in Glendale, AZ on Sept. 20, Top Rank announced this week. Top Rank recently signed Munguia, who will return to the Phoenix area. He beat John Ryder at Footprint Center, the Suns home arena, in January.
And it looks as if Desert Diamond will be busy this fall. The Boxing Hour confirmed a Boxing Scene report that Top Rank wants to stage a Emanuel Navarrete-Oscar Valdez Jr. rematch there on Dec. 7. Navarrete scored a punishing decision over Valdez at Desert Diamond last August.
