By Norm Frauenheim-
The pound-for-pound debate is nothing more than an argument. It has no promoter. It offers no belt. Win it, and you won’t get a dime. Just another argument. Terence Crawford knows that, of course.
He’s been the argument, front and center, for a couple of years now. By now, Crawford (35-0, 26 KOs) has heard it all, or at least enough of it to understand that the only fight he can win is the one within the ropes. He’s been doing that and doing it masterfully throughout his career.
That figures to continue with efficiency as seamless as it is deadly Saturday (ESPN) against Lithuanian Egidijus Kavaliauskas (21-0-1, 17 KOs) at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Crawford will win. The argument will resume. Only the argument won’t be decisive. Bet on it.
The argument against Crawford at No. 1 is fair enough. It falls under a time-tested category: Beat The Best To Be The Best. In a balkanized business, however, that’s problematic. The game’s promotional entities are like rival kingdoms. They are divided by their ties to different networks and ego. Crawford is aligned with Top Rank. Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman, Errol Spence and Manny Pacquiao are with PBC. A virtual no-man’s land seems to separate the two.
A deal is not impossible, of course. Example: The Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury rematch on Feb. 22. Wilder is tied to PBC. Fury signed with Top Rank after their dramatic draw a year ago. Business is possible. Top Rank’s Bob Arum is already thinking about Porter as a Crawford possibility in 2020. It’s still not clear what Spence’s plans are since he was thrown from his Ferrari on Oct. 10 in a scary crash in Dallas.
“Spence had that accident and he’s not, I think, going to be around for a while,’’ Arum told Fight Hub TV this week.
So, Arum is considering Porter, who lost a narrow decision to Spence in late September at Los Angeles’ Staples Center.
“The guys who will tell you if a fight will sell are the bookmakers,’’ Arum said. “If they make a fight 50-50, 6-5, 7-5, then you know you got something.
“Now, I think Porter and Crawford will be in that margin, 8-5 or something like that. So that would be interesting. Danny Garcia with Terence Crawford is about 5-1, so that’s not as interesting to me as a Porter fight.”
Porter, tough and smart, would be interesting and might mute some of the Crawford critics. If Crawford beat Porter – and it says here he would – maybe the critics would stop saying that the Omaha welterweight is from the “wrong side of the street.”
It’s a lousy line.
“Deontay Wilder is about to fight Tyson Fury and you never hear about any ‘sides of the street,’ ‘’ Crawford said this week. “It’s just something people say when it comes to Terence Crawford.
“You don’t hear ‘wrong side of the street’ with any other fighter but Terence Crawford. Why do all these other fights get made, but when it’s Terence Crawford, it’s about the ‘wrong side of the street.”
From this corner, Crawford is No. 1 on any side of the pound-for-pound street. His instincts, timing and overall ring IQ are unequalled in today’s generation.
Enough has already been said about his ability to switch from right-handed to southpaw. But it’s still eye-catching. Switch-hitting is often seen as liability. It’s a sign a fighter has no power in either hand. But Crawford has turned a perceived weakness into a strength. Either hand is potent. For Crawford, there’s no wrong side of the street. No wrong hand either.
Only time can beat him. He’s 32. In an interesting radio interview on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN, Crawford was asked about Sergey Kovalev. Kovalev, stopped by Canelo Alvarez in early November, is 36.
“Really, I don’t see myself fighting at 36,’’ Crawford said. “I want to retire from boxing before boxing retires me.’’
No argument there.Attachments area
