Terence Crawford Wins, But Doesn’t Thrill Against Tough, Awkward Madrimov

Terence Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) may be the best boxer in the world, but that doesn’t mean he’s going to have an easy time out every fight– even when he’s supposed to be significantly better than his opponent.

Saturday night at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles, Omaha, Nebraska’s Crawford won a relatively close unanimous decision over Uzbekistan’s Israil Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs) to take Madrimov’s WBA junior middleweight title and the vacant WBO interim 154 lb. title by scores of 115-113, 115-113, and 116-112. With the victory, Crawford becomes a four-division world champ.

The 29-year-old Uzbek, who came into the contest as a +450 betting underdog proved to be a more difficult task for 36-year-old Crawford than expected, but was never really close to victory.

Utilizing an awkward herky-jerky style that gave the impression of being in a perpetual feint, Madrimov was in constant movement and was hard to size up, even for a fighter in Crawford who is adept at reading and figuring out opposition.

Making matters even more difficult for the soon-to-be 37-year-old (Crawford turns 37 late next month), was the fact that Madrimov very rarely opened up to launch any sort of real offense and, when he did, he made no exploitable mistakes for Crawford to counter.

All throughout the contest, the best and most effective offense came from Crawford, although Madrimov did have some moments that forced Crawford to reset and make adjustments.

The conservative, cautious offense, combined with the odd, off-putting all-feint style he employed, made the former amateur standout an exceedingly difficult opponent to figure out and, ultimately, one that was seemingly designed to hang close in fights like this. All in all, though, Crawford was effective enough to take the majority of the rounds and deserved the decision he got.

“Israil was a tough competitor,” Crawford said in his post-fight interview. “He’s real strong, durable, he took me 12. He had fast feet, good rhythm upstairs and he was strong. He had good discipline like me.

“I figured (the style) out from the get-go, but I was very patient, I didn’t want to get caught. I did my thing.”

It was not, by any means, a scintillating win for the pound-for-pound fighter. It was certainly not the kind of star-building performance this Saudi Riyadh Season card had in mind for the fighter they’ve apprently chosen to be the face of their US boxing efforts.

But, if this fight didn’t build his star, it paves the way for a for-sure star building bout with unified super middleweight champ Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, who will face massive underdog Edgar Berlanga this September 14 in Las Vegas. It remains to be seen, however, if Alvarez would be interested in such a bout. On a number of occasions, the Mexican star has rejected the idea of fighting the naturally smaller Crawford, painting it as a no-win proposition for him if he faced a beefed up welterweight.

Well, Crawford is now officially a junior middleweight and Canelo is just two fights removed from having fought a beefed-up junior middleweight in Jermell Charlo.

Crawford sponsor and money mark chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, has stated his desire to make the Canelo fight for Crawford. On Saturday, though, he mentioned a Vergil Ortiz Jr. matchup for his fighter if a Canelo fight doesn’t materialize.