Nebraska.
That’s how great the unified junior welterweight champion of the world Terence Crawford is right now: great enough to consistently bring elite, world-class boxing and historically relevant fights to Nebraska, and great enough to put on equally elite, world-class performances, too.
That’s pretty great.
I mean no disrespect. There is nothing wrong with Nebraska. It’s a beautiful state and proud home to many. It’s Middle America, and last time I checked most all of the United States is exactly that. But Nebraska is known for pretty much two things in this world: corn and football. And Crawford needed neither of those things to destroy Julius Indongo in just three rounds on Saturday night at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln.
He made it look easy. Crawford assessed Indongo’s effective but simple skill set at the opening bell, then proceeded to dominate him until he knocked him down and out with a hellacious body shot in Round 3.
Yes, Crawford proved to be quite more superior to Indongo than many experts predicted prefight, but he also might be quite more superior to just about every other fighter in the sport right now, too.
Sans Andre Ward, perhaps, who helped call the action on ESPN alongside Joe Tessitoire and Teddy Atlas, Crawford is quite clearly the most elite fighter in all of boxing today. To be entirely fair to the fighter, he may very well be as good or better than Ward, too. We just haven’t seen it yet.
And slow your roll on Vasyl Lomachenko by the way. Crawford and Ward have actually accomplished enough inside a professional boxing ring to be mentioned in this light. Lomachenko hasn’t.
Regardless, Crawford looked spectacular against Indongo, a more than competent world champion fighter coming off the two biggest wins in his career. And Crawford obliterated him. He was just too fast, strong, sleek and seasoned.
Unlike the other 29-year-old who has a big fight this month, Conor McGregor, Crawford actually knows what he’s doing in there.
To put it simply, Crawford is a complete boxer. He can do anything and everything his corner asks, and he can do it well. More impressively, he can do it equally well from both an orthodox and southpaw stance. According to CompuBox, Crawford has landed 48 percent of his power punches across his entire career. That’s a legit percentage, especially considering how aggressively he fights.
Better yet, he throws every punch mean. Lots of fighters frown and throw shade before the bell rings, but hardly any of them fight like they mean it. Crawford is a Sith Lord for real.
This dude seems downright disgusted on fight night. He hates the man in front of him as if his momma just got slapped across the face. He hates it even more maybe that the would-be rival dares to even test him.
Even when he’s clearly a class or two above his opponent, as it was on Saturday night, Crawford throws every single punch with intentional malice.
And who knows just how much this guy is capable of? Already the possessor of five world title belts and two career lineal championships at 135 and 140, who’s to say he can’t do the same at 147 and 154?
Who here doesn’t think he has the unique skill set and emotional/intellectual makeup to become a middleweight champion?
Crawford is a damn fine fighter. He’s got guts. He packs a punch. And he’s just now starting to peak.
All-time Great fighters don’t typically hail from Nebraska. We look to places like New York and Detroit for such beings here in the United States of America. But if you think about it longer than a minute, it kind of makes sense. Because nothing about Crawford is typical.
This undefeated and undisputed super fighter is as atypically elite as they come in our sport, and something tells me the best is yet to come.
