By Norm Frauenheim-
A pound-for-pound debate without a mention of Terence Crawford isn’t much of a conversation. At least, he doesn’t think so. Does Crawford belong?
“Of course,’’ he said. “I feel like I’m already in that conversation.’’
Maybe.
Hank Lundy has some of his own ideas. Turns out, Crawford wouldn’t even make the top three on Lundy’s list.
“No, he’s not the best guy I’ve fight,’’ Lundy said.
Lundy went on to say a lot of things. On the Lundy list, Crawford would rank behind Viktor Postol, Ajose Olusegun, and maybe Dannie Williams.
Lundy might have found a few other names to rank ahead of Crawford if only he had had more time to hold court on his portion of a conference call this week
If he’s as good a fighter as he is a talker, Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) is in trouble Saturday night (10 p.m. ET/PT) in an HBO-televised junior-welterweight bout in The Theater at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
But the guess in this corner is that Lundy has only managed to talk himself into trouble while also giving Crawford a big chance on a very big stage. An impressive victory over Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs) would get Crawford off the fringes of a debate currently dominated by flyweight Roman Gonzalez, middleweight Gennady Golovkin and light-heavyweight Sergey Kovalev.
“It’s hard to rank myself against guys who are in different weight classes,’’ Crawford said. “They would never be my opponent. They are either too big or too small. They do good in their weight division and I do good in mine.’’
So good, in fact, that you can make a pretty good argument that Manny Pacquiao bypassed him for Timothy Bradley for the same reasons that middleweight belt-holders have ducked Golovkin for so long. The risk is too big.
If true, the unbeaten Crawford is left with the motivation to be as impressive as possible. Wittingly or not, Lundy’s talk might have sparked some emotional flint not yet seen in the somewhat stoic fighter from the Midwest.
“I don’t know what’s going on in that boy’s head,’’ Crawford said. “Come Saturday there’s not going to be much talking to do.’’
Crawford conceded that there was some disappointment at not getting the chance to face Pacquiao, who says he’s retiring after the Bradley bout on April 9.
“I wouldn’t say it was a letdown but I wouldn’t say it was exciting,’’ Crawford said the Pacquiao decision. “When they told me the names, they then told me Lundy. He and I had been going back and forth on Twitter for a long time. Now I just want to shut him up.
“He has said a couple of things that upset me, but nothing that has made me change my game plan or fight different than I would normally fight. I am going to go in there and fight my fight. Do what I have to do to get the job done.’’
Then, maybe, Crawford can say thanks to Lundy and hello to a more accepted place in an ever-evolving argument.
