Terence Crawford is bitter about not getting his flowers from the fans for his recent victory over Israil Madrimov on August 3 and his past successes during his 16-year career.
Now 37, Crawford is showing signs of age, resentful and feeling victimized. He does not understand why he is not adored by the fans.
It is a classic textbook example of a person who made the wrong decisions and now cannot understand their mistakes. It is tragic and sad that it lost its potential. He didn’t want to fight killers like Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis or step up and run the gauntlet of facing David Benavidez, David Morrell and Christian Mbilli.
Crawford felt unappreciated and invalidated by the public, who were unimpressed by the opposition he beat.
They wanted Crawford to take risks with his career and fight sharks earlier in his career, but he didn’t. He could move up to 160 and 168 to challenge himself against Canelo Alvarez, Gennadiy Golovkin, and Jermall Charlo years ago. He didn’t, and lost his 16-year career beating the opposition halfway.
Former four-division world champion Crawford feels he should be adored for beating two gold medalists, Felix Diaz and Yuriorkis Gamboa, and other champions during his career.
Not surprisingly, fans weren’t impressed by these wins or the other wins Crawford racked up during his years with Top Rank, the same promoters who helped create Edgar Berlanga’s glittering record.
“The standards for me are always high because everyone still doubts me. People always say that I’m not as good as I’m painted to be. My resume is (poor),” said Terence Crawford to Bernie the Boxer.
“Everybody keeps saying these things to try to put me down when they can’t see what I’ve accomplished in the sport of boxing because of the things I’ve done; you have to take your hat off and give me my props,” said Terence.
Crawford’s career best wins:
– Israil Madrimov: Close victory
– Errol Spence: *After a car accident
– Shawn Porter: Past his prime
– Ricky Hatton: Ditto
– Kell Brook: Post-eye injury issues from GGG
– Amir Khan: Faded
– Jeff Horn: Who cares?
– Julius Indongo
– Jose Benavidez Jr: post-gunshot leg injury
– Felix Diaz: Tiny 2008 gold medalist who was never a professional
– Yuriorkis Gamboa: 2004 giold olymoic medal, which was too small for light
“When you are much better than the competition in front of you, and the competition is world champions, Olympic gold medalists (min. 5’5 1/2″ Felix Diaz and 5’4 1/2″ Yuriorkis Gamboa), multiple. Weight champion of the world and you are much better than the competition,” said Crawford.
Fans aren’t going to make a big deal about the 5’9′ giant Crawford beating Felix Diaz and Yuriorkis Gamboa because he should never have fought at lightweight in the first place in 2014.
As big as Crawford was, he looked like Goliath in the ring with Gamboa and Diaz. It doesn’t matter that those fighters won gold medals in the Olympics. The amateurs have nothing to do with the pro game. It is a completely different sport and is more similar to fencing than actual boxing. Those guys were brave enough to fight the much bigger Crawford. It would be like Crawford moving up to lightweight and facing Artur Beterbiev. It would be food for Beterbiev.
“They look at you like you don’t fight anybody. The same way they say about Roy Jones Jr. The same way they say about Floyd Mayweather. He fights guys out of his prime and fights these guys when they’re washed up” , Crawford said.
Roy Jones Jr, and Mayweather were much better fighters than Crawford in their prime, but they obviously picked their fair share of weak opposition.
“When you’re so much better than the competition, nobody wants to give you your fair share,” Crawford said.
Crawford’s real problem is that he hasn’t fought the talented fighters that the fans wanted, that made him a PPV star years ago. Unfortunately, it’s too late now to turn back the clock and do what Crawford should have done over 10 years ago. He is old, bitter, and unable to fix his mistakes.
