NOTHING sums up the profession of Terence “Bud” Crawford fairly like a low-key struggle in December towards Russian David Avanesyan on a pay-per-view streaming service referred to as BLK Prime. A dangerous struggle, a difficult struggle, a struggle he’ll get no credit score for profitable, Crawford’s struggle this Saturday (December 10) on the CHI Well being Heart in Omaha turns into all of the more odd and irritating when one considers 2022 was alleged to be the yr he lastly confronted main rival Errol Spence to deliver readability to the welterweight division and solidify their respective legacies.
Because it occurred, that struggle fell aside no prior to 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. Right here, with Crawford combating Avanesyan, we get a good struggle, one Avanesyan’s current kind 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 struggle that makes any kind of sense.
In spite of everything, Avanesyan, regardless of his current kind, is a person largely unknown in America; his scalp due to this fact unlikely to additional improve Crawford’s legacy in any manner. He is an efficient 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 struggle a irritating one for all who charge Crawford, 38-0 (29), as one of many very best 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 struggle towards Shawn Porter, he was not less than concerned in a struggle towards an opponent recognisable to most boxing followers; somebody who, although accustomed to developing quick, had shared a hoop with a lot of the world’s high welterweights. It wasn’t Errol Spence, no, but it surely was somebody who had fought Spence earlier than and somebody who had confirmed pedigree in and round that form of stage.
There are, after all, quite a lot of strong wins on the Crawford resume, of that there is no such thing as a query. Wins towards unbeaten fighters like Jose Benavidez (TKO 12) and Egidijus Kavaliauskas (TKO 9), for instance, had been good pretty current ones (albeit towards names destined to sink with out a hint), as had been, going again additional, wins towards Jeff Horn, Julius Indongo and Viktor Postol, all of whom had been additionally unbeaten.
However the worrying factor is, the reputations of these aforementioned fighters pale compared to that of Crawford, that means they had been, on the time of him combating them, comparatively unproven contenders whose “legacy” within the sport is but to be determined. Furthermore, one can nonetheless make the argument, in 2022, that one of the best win on the Crawford file stays the ninth-round TKO he secured towards gifted Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa all the way in which again in 2014. If that doesn’t act as a wakeup name, nothing will.
Actually, whether or not you imagine Gamboa represents his greatest win or not, there may be an argument to be made that Avanesyan, his subsequent opponent, is not any higher than Gamboa, Postol, Indongo, Horn, Kavaliauskas or Benavidez. Sure, it’s true, he brings to Crawford some issues these males had been unable to, but, equally, if we have a look at the chilly, onerous details, and assess their respective data, Avanesyan’s wins towards the likes of Josh Kelly (TKO 6), Liam Taylor (TKO 2) and Oskari Metz (TKO 1) don’t recommend Crawford is assembly a contender recent from ripping by murderers’ row.
One of the best you’ll be able to say is that Avanesyan, whereas unproven at this type of stage, has not less than proven a capability to eliminate 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 manner aggressive with him. As a substitute, as has change into 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 fame as a little bit of a destroyer, although at what stage he is ready to destroy stays to be seen. Clearly, this fame will probably be examined like by no means earlier than on Saturday towards Crawford.
On Saturday, Avanesyan will, not like 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 very fact he has nonetheless not fought Errol Spence so miserable.
A late stoppage of David Avanesyan received’t inform us something we don’t already learn about Crawford, nor do a lot for his profession. But it surely appears however the likeliest final 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.
