LOS ANGELES – In Jim Lampley’s mind, Terence Crawford is a throwback to the first fighter Lampley ever watched on television, the legendary Sugar Ray Robinson.
Earlier this week, when Lampley prepped for his Saturday live fight chat on PPV.com by interviewing Crawford, the Hall of Fame broadcaster reflected on the principled, self-determined attributes of the great Robinson, who remains atop many all-time pound-for-pound lists.
Nebraska’s three-division and twice-undisputed champion Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) stands at the summit of today’s pound-for-pound rankings as he comes off his signature ninth-round TKO of former three-belt welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. last year and now seeks a fourth division title Saturday night at BMO Stadium against Uzbekistan’s World Boxing Association junior-middleweight champion Israil Madrimov (10-0-1, 7 KOs).
Like Robinson, Crawford is dedicated to scripting his career the way he wants, confident that no man – even, perhaps, previously undisputed super-middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez in the near future – can deny his destiny.
So it was fascinating to watch the Lampley-Crawford conversation begin with Crawford turning interviewer, asking Lampley more about how his awareness of Robinson started.
“How do you remember that?” the now-36-year-old champion asked.
“It’s such a vivid memory for me. My father had died the year before. My mom walked down a hallway at a holiday party for adults in Hendersonville, N.C., and put me in a room with a TV dinner tray and said, ‘Watch this. Because if your father was still alive, this is what you would be doing with him,’” Lampley told a riveted Crawford.
“Gillette Friday Night Fights, Sugar Ray Robinson versus Bobo Olson for the middleweight championship. For the next 90 minutes, a man named Don Dunphy is going to tell you everything you need to know about boxing,” Lampley’s mother said.
Lampley told Crawford, “When I first started calling boxing on HBO 32 years after that, the voice in my head was Don Dunphy. Robinson was far and away the star … .”
Just like Crawford is nearly 70 years later.
Lampley introduced Crawford to his viewers by saying, “This is the consensus welterweight champion and pound-for-pound No. 1. I’m 100 per cent convinced Terence Crawford is indisputably No.1. You agree?”
Said Crawford: “In my mind. … Everyone has their own opinions.”
Knowing the depth of Crawford’s resolve in that belief prompted Lampley to ask him plainly, “Do you want to fight Canelo?”
“Yeah, that’s a fight that I’d be interested in taking,” Crawford answered. “A lot of people say I’d be crazy to think about fighting a guy so many weight classes above me, (being) so big and strong. That’s what we do it for: the challenges posed in front of us.”
Lampley brought Crawford to reveal one of his defining characteristics.
“You do it for the chance to prove things others don’t think you can do?” Lampley asked.
“That’s correct.”
Lampley continued with the question, “Such as moving up to defeat a sturdy, comfortable-in-his-weight, 168-pound (world champion)?”
“That’s right,” Crawford answered.
Saturday night must be checked off first.
“My main focus is this weekend. I’m not thinking about any other fighter. Madrimov is a good fighter, a tough competitor. He’s hungry and is going to bring his ‘A’ game and try to dethrone me,” Crawford said. “My focus is on him because he’s dangerous.”
Lampley noted that new champion and accomplished amateur Madrimov, 29, has drawn comparisons to the accomplished former middleweight champion Gennadiy Golovkin because of his style and “some power in his game,” and to Alvarez, “because of the sturdy, stocky build and punch resistance/chin. Valid?”
“Everyone has their own opinion on his style. We shall see,” Crawford answered.
“What impresses you?” Lampley pressed.
“His movement, his elusiveness, his boxing IQ more than anything else,” said Crawford.
Lampley then asked Crawford to discuss his development as a left-handed power puncher even though he’s right-handed.
“I’ve been southpaw as an amateur,” Crawford said, explaining he’ll take a left-handed stance based on “different styles for different fighters.”
Lampley reflected on the impressive destruction of Spence.
“You made Errol Spence look like he didn’t know what hit him, you seemed to shock him. Did you know you’d get to that stage?” the longtime voice of HBO boxing asked.
“If you look to the buildup, I always said I was the bigger puncher,” Crawford said.
Will you be the bigger puncher Saturday, Lampley wondered as Crawford moves up seven pounds?
“We shall see. I never know because we don’t have a lot of fights to see how big a puncher (Madrimov) is,” Crawford said. “We haven’t seen a lot of him with top fighters, the kind that can solidify him as a mega puncher.”
All of that will be learned on another fight worthy of a TV tray and affixed attention: Israel Madrimov versus Sugar Ray Robinson’s descendant, Terence Crawford.
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