Terence Crawford proved the critics right, as he dismantled and eventually knocked out unbeaten Cuban boxer, Yuriorkis Gamboa. Last week I predicted that Gamboa was much more experienced that the young new champion from Omaha, Crawford, and that his speed and experience would be too much for him. I was right for about 4 rounds. In the 5th, Crawford had seen enough of everything Gamboa brought to the table; he had changed tactics, the first one was turning southpaw. At the moment it seemed like a desperation move (It’s almost always a desperation move), but once you saw him execute the tactic, you knew he was on to something. He quickly capitalized on the risk by knocking Gamboa down hard. He got up of course, but from then on, it was mostly Crawford. He had a couple of hiccups here and there but managed to maintain a controlled fight plan, very much ala Pernell Whitaker, sticking a southpaw jab and hooking with his right hand. He definitely had more openings and that was the key to victory. He used his patience and better ring generalship to impose his size and strength over the much smaller Gamboa to eventually drop him four times and end his run as an undefeated fighter.
Omaha, Nebraska, was also a protagonist in this event. Fans came to the venue to cheer for their young champion, 11,000 of them if you like counting. That was about as large of a crowd not mainly composed from latinos. This goes to show that if you promote the right kind of events in the right kind of towns, you’re going to expand your fan base and fill out arenas. Don’t bring these fights to Indian Reservation Casinos, where nobody knows who the two guys are, and nobody actually cares. Boxing is a sport of the people and needs to be where the people cheering for their house fighter are. This was without a doubt an example of how and where to promote a fight. The atmosphere in the building was electric and made the one sided affair much more exciting than it actually was. Yes, it was a good fight, but not to be considered the leading candidate for fight of the year like the HBO crew led us to believe during the telecast. Sometimes atmosphere has more to do with the fight being perceived as better than it is than the actual fight itself.
For Terence Crawford, the sky is the limit right now. He has every tool to become a star in this sport. His skill set is right up there, his desire to fight the best (facing Yuri Gamboa in his first defense at home? Thats balls!), the way he demanded to fight in front of his home crowd, and the kind of composure he showed in the ring, even when hurt. A potential fight versus semi-retired Mikey Garcia would be a great boxing fight, and a unification with Miguel Vazquez would also be an interesting affair. I won’t even think of him jumping up in weight just yet, he has to dominate his division before doing that. There are a lot of potential fights to do in the Lightweight limit and he should stick to that as of right now. As for Gamboa, I think he isn’t a natural Lightweight. He has a shaky chin and should move down to a weight class were he can compete. His short reach gave him lots of trouble against a tall rangy fighter like Crawford, he looked real small in there and wasn’t able to really put the hurt on Crawford. He does have lots of speed and great footwork, but he just doesn’t seem to be able to work himself inside as good as he could if in another size limit.
It was a great fight at a great time. Boxing is in dying need of new stars, I just hope Al Haymon doesn’t sign him, since the Haymon business is based on stopping fast running careers on their tracks in order to fit in his schedule league.
The RepubliKa Boxing 