NOTHING sums up the profession of Terence “Bud” Crawford fairly like a low-key fight in December in opposition to Russian David Avanesyan on a pay-per-view streaming service known as BLK Prime. A dangerous fight, a difficult fight, a fight he’ll get no credit score for profitable, Crawford’s fight this Saturday (December 10) on the CHI Health Center in Omaha turns into all of the more odd and irritating when one considers 2022 was imagined to be the yr he lastly confronted main rival Errol Spence to convey readability to the welterweight division and solidify their respective legacies.
As it occurred, that fight fell aside no earlier than we had been informed it was near being made and now we should settle, as earlier than, for each Crawford and Spence combating different welterweights and consequently shedding time. Here, with Crawford combating Avanesyan, we get an honest fight, one Avanesyan’s current type perhaps even deserves, however it’s nonetheless not Crawford vs. Spence, nor, when one takes under consideration the place each Crawford and Spence are of their careers, a fight that makes any type of sense.
After all, Avanesyan, regardless of his current type, is a person largely unknown in America; his scalp due to this fact unlikely to additional improve Crawford’s legacy in any means. He is an effective fighter, a succesful fighter, however beating him does no extra for Crawford’s standing as both the first- or second-best welterweight on the earth than any of Crawford’s earlier wins.
That’s what makes this fight a irritating one for all who fee Crawford, 38-0 (29), as one of many very most interesting skills of the fashionable period. At 35, he can’t afford to have too many extra of those assignments, not when, as is the case with this one, it marks his solely ring look of the yr.
Even the final time we noticed him, in a November 2021 fight in opposition to Shawn Porter, he was no less than concerned in a fight in opposition to an opponent recognisable to most boxing followers; somebody who, although accustomed to arising quick, had shared a hoop with a lot of the world’s prime welterweights. It wasn’t Errol Spence, no, nevertheless it was somebody who had fought Spence earlier than and somebody who had confirmed pedigree in and round that form of degree.
There are, after all, plenty of stable wins on the Crawford resume, of that there is no such thing as a query. Wins in opposition to unbeaten fighters like Jose Benavidez (TKO 12) and Egidijus Kavaliauskas (TKO 9), for instance, had been good pretty current ones (albeit in opposition to names destined to sink with no hint), as had been, going again additional, wins in opposition to Jeff Horn, Julius Indongo and Viktor Postol, all of whom had been additionally unbeaten.
But the worrying factor is, the reputations of these aforementioned fighters pale compared to that of Crawford, which means they had been, on the time of him combating them, comparatively unproven contenders whose “legacy” within the sport is but to be determined. Moreover, one can nonetheless make the argument, in 2022, that the perfect win on the Crawford report stays the ninth-round TKO he secured in opposition to proficient Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa all the way in which again in 2014. If that doesn’t act as a wakeup name, nothing will.
Certainly, whether or not you consider Gamboa represents his greatest win or not, there may be an argument to be made that Avanesyan, his subsequent opponent, isn’t any higher than Gamboa, Postol, Indongo, Horn, Kavaliauskas or Benavidez. Yes, it’s true, he brings to Crawford some issues these males had been unable to, but, equally, if we take a look at the chilly, exhausting details, and assess their respective data, Avanesyan’s wins in opposition to the likes of Josh Kelly (TKO 6), Liam Taylor (TKO 2) and Oskari Metz (TKO 1) don’t counsel Crawford is assembly a contender recent from ripping by means of murderers’ row.
The greatest you possibly can say is that Avanesyan, whereas unproven at this type of degree, has no less than proven a capability to do away with opponents at ranges beneath world-class with a certain quantity of fashion and decisiveness. In different phrases, the 34-year-old didn’t waste time with Kelly or Taylor or Metz, nor did he supply them sufficient to have them suppose they had been in any means aggressive with him. Instead, as has grow to be his customized, Avanesyan noticed a weak spot in these opponents and attacked it like a canine on a bone, refusing to let go of them till both the referee or their nook intervened and saved them.
This, whether or not rightly or wrongly, has given Avanesyan, 29-3-1 (17), a status as a little bit of a destroyer, although at what degree he is ready to destroy stays to be seen. Clearly, this status might be examined like by no means earlier than on Saturday in opposition to Crawford.
On Saturday, Avanesyan will, in contrast to in earlier fights, be combating a person who has not solely encountered his model earlier than however a person who has, up to now in his professional profession, confirmed a capability to regulate his personal model to counteract and overcome each single model he has confronted within the ring. That’s what makes Terence Crawford such a frightening proposition for anybody who fights him. It’s additionally what makes the actual fact he has nonetheless not fought Errol Spence so miserable.
A late stoppage of David Avanesyan gained’t inform us something we don’t already learn about Crawford, nor do a lot for his profession. But it appears however the likeliest end result this weekend.
On the Omaha undercard, Philadelphia-based Ukrainian Arnold Khegai, 18-1-1 (11), fights Mexican Eduardo Baez, 21-3-2 (7), over 10 rounds at featherweight, whereas the unbeaten Steven Nelson, 17-0 (14), meets fellow American James Ballard, 10-4 (3), over eight at light-heavyweight.
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