Terence Crawford beat Israil Madrimov over the distance in his super-welterweight debut, seeing an 11-fight stoppage streak come to and end but earning the WBA belt to become a four-division world champion.
Madrimov, previously undefeated, had good success through twelve and pushed ‘Bud’ harder than he has been in some time, perhaps the hardest in his entire 41-fight campaign.
It was the American who had his hand raised in the end, winning on all three scorecards after handling the weight jump well and scoring points with powerful combinations throughout.
In the ring post-fight, Madrimov said that he felt he did enough to win and at least deserved a rematch. At the press conference, he discussed Crawford as an opponent.
“Crawford is really good, he’s pound-for-pound best, he’s one of the best in the world – he’s not an easy fight. He knocked out the last 10 opponents he fought, Spence and others … There is no doubt he has power, there is no doubt he has skills, I knew that, that’s why this fight was so close.
If I won the 11th and 12th rounds maybe I could have won the fight or got the draw, but I did what I could. I followed my plan. I did a lot in the beginning of the fight as well, I tried to be aggressive, I tried to take the fight to him. I obviously exerted more energy, but maybe next time, with the experience I gained, I can do better in the future.”
Unfortunately for the 29-year-old there is little to no chance of the rematch happening. Instead Riyadh Season’s Turki Alalshikh has confirmed an offer has been sent to Saul ‘Canelo‘ Alvarez.
Madrimov said it would be a tall order for Crawford to get the win a further two divisions up at super-middleweight.
“I don’t know, it depends on what weight they fight in, but if they’re going to be fighting in Canelo’s current weight category I think it will be very difficult for Crawford because [Canelo is] massive.”
Canelo defends three of the four major 168 belts against Edgar Berlanga on September 14 having been stripped of the IBF title. He has previously been dismissive of the Crawford match-up, but not many in the sport have turned down the money Alalshikh brings to the table.
