Terence Crawford has announced himself in the super-welterweight division, winning a world title at the first time of asking by beating previously undefeated Israil Madrimov.
Crawford took Madrimov’s WBA World Title over the distance with scores of 116-112, 115-113 and 115-113 all in his favour, something the Uzbek’s promoter Eddie Hearn took issue with.
In an interview with Box Nation, the Brit said Crawford’s team will feel ‘lucky.’
“I don’t think anyone can say that was a dominant victory … Israil landed a lot of clean shots on him, marked him up bad. That eye was bad. I think they’ll feel lucky to get away with that.”
The 36-year-old pound-for-pound star now pushes on, but he has been unlucky in that the two names he was targetting – unified super-middleweight champion Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez or WBC and WBO super-welterweight titlist Sebastian Fundora – have other plans.
Hearn believes that Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh will instead look to make a fight against Vergil Ortiz.
“I think His Excellency will make the Vergil Ortiz fight. Great fight. And by the way, styles make fights. Madrimov is very awkward. Terence really struggled with him, he struggled with the style.”
That fight with Ortiz, should it be top of the list, will solely depend on how the undefeated 26-year-old performs this weekend against the WBC Interim Champion, Serhii Bohachuk.
Ortiz will step into the ring against the Ukrainian with 22 knockouts in 22 wins and zero losses, a record that would make him one of the sport’s top names had his campaign not been stunted by illness on a few occasions.
Promoter Oscar De La Hoya is adamant that he will be active from now on in order to become boxing’s next superstar – a win over ‘Bud’ Crawford certainly provides that.
