By Norm Frauenheim
LOS ANGELES — Terence Crawford won the fight. But he didn’t beat his critics.
Crawford’s place in the pound-for-pound debate and indeed history are still an argument, one sure to be debated as much as ever after he won a fourth title in a fourth weight class with a unanimous decision over Israil Madrimov before an announced crowd of about 28,000 at BMO Stadium Saturday night.
Crawford moved up the scale to junior-middleweight. But he didn’t bring some of his singular brilliance with him. He believes this is his era. But that claim will have to wait. Madrimov did to Crawford what Errol Spence Jr, Shawn Porter and so many more could not. He took him to the score cards.
Madrimov was the first fighter not knocked out by Crawford in eight years. Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) had scored 11 straight stoppages. Then, the streak was snapped by an unlikely fighter, an Uzbek known more his amateur accomplishment than his pro resume.
Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) fought the feared Crawford on even terms. At times, he made Crawford look ordinary. Above all, he made him look beatable, especially if he faces Canelo Alvarez in another jump up the scale, this time to a projected bout at 168 pounds.
“He’s a hell of a fighter,’’ Crawford said.
Above all, Madrimov was a surprising fighter, unknown to most in the crowd. But his amateur education included tireless movement and shifting angles that seemed to baffle Crawford. Going into the final two rounds, it looked as if Crawford might lose on the cards. But a sudden, perhaps desperate aggressiveness, might have saved him in the end. He rocked Madrimov in the 11th and the 12th with with repeated uppercuts. On the official scorecards, it was 115-113, 116-112, 115-113, all for Crawford. The Boxing Hour.com also scored it 115-113, also for Crawford..
But not everybody agreed, including Matchroom’s Eddie Hearn, Madrimov’s promoter.
“This fight was on a knife edge,’’ said Hearn, who especially angry at the 116-112 score. “In a title fight, you’ve got to rip the the belt off the defending champion.’’
Crawford didn’t do that. But he did leave the ring with the World Boxing Association’s version of the junior-middleweight title.
For Madrimov, it was enough to ask for a rematch. He asked Hearn to put one together for later in the year. But that depends on Crawford, who will be 37 on Sept. 28 and looked every bit his age. There’s speculation that Crawford is just a couple fights from retirement. The guess has been that he’ll cash out if and when he ever gets an opportunity to fight Canelo. If Canelo was watching Saturday, he had to like his chances.
Predictably patient and calculating in his debut at 154 pounds, Crawford began slowly, perhaps studiously. It was the first stage in a search and destroy mission. The search was for an opening, a weakness in Madrimov’s style. But Crawford never did get to the destroy stage.
Through the first five rounds, it was hard to find a weakness in Madrimov. The clever Uzbek presented Crawford with a problematic mix of angles and movement. He stepped to one side, bounced up and down at a rapid pace, then stepped to the other side. For Crawford, Madrimov’s style presented a tactical puzzle, one complicated by his tireless and purposeful movement.
Crawford, fighting out of a southpaw stance, managed to land a few right hands. But not one appeared to do much damage. At times, he made Crawford look awkward. He tripped and fell in the fifth.
All the while, Madrimov would land a jab, enough of them to leave a small bruise under Crawford’s right eye. With each passing round, it looked as if Madrimov was emboldened by his ability to fight the longtime pound-for-pound contender on his own terms. He dictated the pace. Controlled the ring.
In the seventh, Madrimov’s right hand landed with more frequency. In the ninth and tenth, Madrimov was the aggressor. Stubbornly, he moved forward, putting Crawford on his heels and without any apparent fear of walking into one of his lethal counters.
“He fought a great fight,’’ Crawford said.
A surprising one, too
Valenzuela upsets Isaac Cruz
Jose Valenzuela kept moving.
In the end, he moved into a huge upset.
Valenzuela relied on patience, poise and precision, all enough to score a split decision over feared Isaac Cruz in the final fight before a main event featuring Terence Crawford-versus-Israil Madrimov Saturday in front of a capacity crowd at BMO Stadium Saturday.
Valenzuela (14-2 9 KOs), the new World Boxing Association junior-welterweight champion, had to endure — indeed survive — some rocky moments in the late rounds to secure the win over Cruz, a 5-to-1 betting favorite.
Cruz, ever aggressive, threw a jackhammer-like right hand out of a crouch. It stunned Valenzuela in the final seconds of the 11th. Had it happened earlier in the round, Cruz (26-3-1, 18 KOs) might have saved his belt
But Valenzuela, of Renton WA, made it back to his corner with his poise intact. after the 12th, two scorecards favored him, 116-112 both. On the third, it was 115-113 for Cruz.
“His smarts,” said his new rainer, Robert Garcia, who has moved into a corner that was once occupied by Jose Benavidez Sr. “He had to stay smart. Fight smart.”
He did, but his steady performance didn’t convince a crowd that included many Mexican fans. They booed the decision. Cruz, a Mexico City fighter nicknamed Pitbull, believed he did enough to win.
“So did the crowd,” Cruz said. “Listen to them.”
It sounded like an immediate rematch
Ruiz and Miller fight to a dull draw
It was a majority draw, Mostly a dud, too..
There was no winner Saturday in a heavyweight bout between Andy Ruiz and Jarrell Miller Saturday on the Crawford-Madrimov card at BMO Stadium
In a plodding exhibition between fighters beyond their prime, there was mostly impatience from a gathering crowd anxious for the main event, or Eminem, or just an early stoppage. But there was no stoppage, no early end to a fight that generated boos before it reached the sixth round.
It was Ruiz’ first fight in 23 months. Ruiz (35-2-1, 22 KOs) had been idle for too long. His noted hand speed, the key to his memorable upset of Anthony Joshua, was gone. Midway through the fight, he became a one-handed fighter because of an apparent broken bone in his right.
That allowed Miller (26-1-2, 22 KOs) to assert himself. But he never really capitalized. His punches were hit-and-miss, mostly miss. In the end, he did enough to win on one scorecard, 116-112. On the other two cards however, it was a draw, 114-114.
“Let’s do it again,” Ruiz said to the crowd. “I’d love a rematch.”
He’d be the only one.
Jared Anderson falls in fifth-round beatdown
Jared Anderson began the day as America’s next great heavyweight.
But his future changed.
The next great was turned into just another American heavyweight.
Martin Bekole (21-1, 16 KOs), a Congo heavyweight living in London, knocked the next out of Anderson’s future with a beatdown, three knockdowns in a stunning fifth-round stoppage Saturday on the Crawford-Madrimov card.
Anderson’s feet weren’t quick enough to elude Bekole. His jab didn’t have the power or precision to keep him off. Bekole simply moved forward, steamrolling Anderson like a runaway truck on the nearby LA freeway.
Anderson (17-1, 15 KOs) was down late in the first round from an uppercut. He was down a second time midway through the fifth from another uppercut. Moments later, he delivered still another uppercut, dropping Anderson onto the canvas and under the bottom rope. He got up. But it was clear he was finished, a stoppage loser at 2:07 of the fifth.
Morrell wins light-heavy debut, calls out Benavidez
David Morrell didn’t waste much time after winning his light-heavyweight debut, a unanimous decision over Radivoje Kalajdzic.
Who’s next?
David Benavidez, he said.
“I want to fight Benavidez,” Morrell said after winning a vacant World Boxing Association title with a mixed performance in his first fight after moving up from super-middleweight. “I want him. Everybody knows that. Benavidez is the boogeyman. I’m here.”
Benavidez won his light-heavyweight debut, a decision over Oleksandr Gvozdyk, also in a mixed performance on June 15.
Before calling out the Phoenix fighter, it wasn’t exactly clear that Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) had beaten Kalajdzic, a tough Serbian and a veteran light-heavyweight. Morrell appeared to tire Saturday on the Crawford-Madrimov undercard. He pursued an early knockout. Midway through the 12-round bout, Kalajdzic (29-3, 21 KOs) moved forward and countered, often landing shots easily. Nevertheless, it was one-sided on the scorecards. It was 117-11,118-110 and 117-111, all for Morrell.
“I feel good,” said Morrell, who fought as though he was thinking more about Benavidez than Kalajdzic
Andy Cruz impresses, scores seventh-round stoppage of Moran
Andy Cruz showed why he’s a prospect with a dramatic seventh-round stoppage of Antonio Moran in the third fight Saturday on the Crawford-Madrimov card.
Cruz (4-0, 2 KOs), a Cuban lightweight who won Olympic gold in a victory over Keyshawn Davis in 2021, staggered Moran i(30-7-1, 21 KOs) in the sixth.
Late in the seventh, he finished the job with a long right hand that traveled with laser-like precision. It sent Moran, of Mexico City, falling into the ropes, which were the only thing that kept him from falling out of the ring. At 2:59 of the seventh, it was over.
Steve Nelson, Crawford stablemate, scored fifth-round TKO
Omaha super-middleweight Steve Nelson calls himself So Cold.
It’s a nickname he put to good use on a hot afternoon Saturday in the second fight on the card featuring Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov at BMO Stadium, a soccer stadium within a few miles roadwork from the LA skyline.
In an outdoor ring at the center of the stadium floor, Nelson (20-0, 16 KOs), a Crawford stablemate, kept his cool, controlled the pace and then coolly scored a fifth-round TKO of Marcos Ramon Vazquez (20-1-1, 10 KOs) of Tijuana.
First Bell: Crawford-Madrimov opens with a draw.
It started with more people in the ring than in the seats.. Instead of cheers, there just echoes from the traffic that surrounded BMO Stadium.
But the show must go on and it did with Saudi welterweight Ziyad Almaayouf (5-0-1, 1 KO) and Michael Bulik (6-7-1, 2 KOs) fighting to a draw in the first fight on a card featuring Terence Crawford-Israil Madrimov Saturday under a hot sun at BMO Stadium.
Almaayouf appeared to be the busier fighter. Early on, he scored repeatedly with fast hands. On the scorecards, however, it was a majority draw — 57-57 twice and 59-55 on the third card.
