Israil Madrimov’s trainer, Joel Diaz, believes the combination of Terence Crawford’s age, 37, and move up in weight to 154 will have a disastrous effect on his performance this Saturday night when he challenges Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs) for his WBA junior middleweight title at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles.
Wrestling Preparation For Crawford
Diaz feels that Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) is pushing his luck against Madrimov, who rehydrates to the mid-170s and is powerful at that weight. The 5’8″ Madrimov is enormous with his stocky build and power, which are more suited to the 168-lb division than at 154.
Joel says Madrimov has been working out with wrestlers for this camp, which is wise for him. A big part of Crawford’s game is built on wrestling his opponents in the clinch to tire them out and sneak in shots at point-blank range.
If that’s taken away from Crawford, it’s one less thing he has going for him in this fight because he’s already at a disadvantage in the power, youth, and size department.
“Israil is ready for everything that Crawford brings. We touched a lot of the strongest points that Terence Crawford beings to the fight,” said coach Joel Diaz to Probox TV about his fighter Israil Madrimov, having trained for what Terence Crawford does best ahead of their fight this Saturday, August 3rd.
Crawford’s mobility has diminished due to age, and he tends to use his jab, pot shots, and clinching to win his fights.
He likes to back up against the ropes to use them to support his weary legs and then land short punches on the inside. He got away with that style well against Errol Spence, David Avanesyan, and Shawn Porter for obvious reasons. Those guys are pretty old.
“Crawford has never fought in this weight class [154]. He’s an ex-lightweight coming up the ladder,” said boxing expert Paulie Malignaggi.
Crawford’s sparring with 40-year-old Andre Ward has been next to useless for him because it will not help him adjust to fighting a 154-pound knockout artist like Israil Madrimov, who will be a solid 175-pounder on the night. Ward hasn’t fought in years, and it looked like he was sporting an Elvis paunch.
Crawford’s Age and Deteriorating Skills
“You know what age does. We get older, and obviously, he’s not the same,” said trainer Diaz about the soon-to-be 37-year-old Crawford not being the same fighter due to his advancing age.
All you need to do is look at some of the old footage of Crawford’s fight against Jeff Horn from 2018 and compare it to his last fight against Errol Spence Jr. in July 2023 to know that Terence is not the same fighter. He’s not Benjamin Button, aging backward, and he certainly hasn’t discovered the fountain of youth to drink from its youth-restoring waters.
“Crawford hasn’t had a lot of wars, but every fight has a training [camp], and every camp is wear & tear. He’s 37 years old. There are a lot of things that give me hope on top of the training and the boxing plan that we have. He’s moving into 154.”
It doesn’t matter that Crawford hasn’t had a lot of wars due to his weak opposition because he’s still a 37-year-old fighter and has taken punishment during his camps.
Even without the wars, a person nearing 40 is a virtual fossil for the sport. Boxing is a young person’s sport, and it’s worse when a fighter takes year-long vacations after each fight like Crawford routinely does.
“He was a great 135, 140 and 147. He’s moving into a different weight class, 154. Madrimov is a solid 154. He walks around a solid 175, 175. We’re going to see how Crawford’s punches affect [the bigger, stronger, and younger 29-year-old] Israil Madrimov,” said Diaz.
Diaz fails to mention the opposition that Crawford fought at 135, 140, and 147, mainly a rag-tag bunch of shot-to-piece fighters heading for the last round-up.
Questionable Quality of Crawford’s Past Opposition
Errol Spence
Shawn Porter
Jeff Horn
Kell Brook
Ricky Burns
Yuriorkis Gamboa
Viktor Postol
Six of those seven fighters were very old and well past their primes when Crawford fought them. That’s why it’s difficult to take much from Crawford’s previous 40 wins on his resume, as he’s never fought any elite or A-level competition.
On Saturday, it will be the first time that Crawford has stepped into the ring with an elite talent, which could be bad for him.
“You see Canelo moving up to 175 to fight Dmitry Bivol, and you see what happened. [Canelo’s power didn’t carry up, and he was too small to compete],” said Diaz.
Canelo’s power didn’t carry him from 168 to 175, and he looked like he didn’t belong in the same ring as WBA light heavyweight champion Bivol in their fight in 2022.
The same thing could happen to Crawford, who is even less active than Canelo and is fighting a much bigger puncher, Madrimov. It could be an eye-opening experience for Crawford, showing that he reached a little too far without scouting out the enemy.
“He works out with wrestlers,” Diaz said about Madrimov’s work with wrestlers and jiu-jitsu fighters in camp. This could help against Crawford because he likes to wrestle in the clinch.
If Madrimov can take away Crawford’s ability to wrestle, that will force him to focus on his other tools, which are more boxing-related. Crawford lacks the power to get in the trenches and slug with Madrimov because he possesses GGG-like power, and it would be too risky for a fighter who rarely fights and is pushing 40 to go to war.
Crawford’s age and lack of activity in the last four years could doom him if he fights Madrimov the way he did his previous three opponents, Errol Spence, David Avanesyan, and Shawn Porter.
Those were all older fighters who had nothing left in their games when they fought Crawford, and he took advantage of their withered skills to win knockouts.
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