Terence Crawford and Israil Madrimov successfully weighed in during today’s weigh-in for their fight on Saturday. The official weigh-in for the public will be later tonight at 9:00 p.m. PT in Los Angeles.
Weigh-in Results:
Terence Crawford: 153.4 lbs
Israil Madrimov – 154lbs
Crawford feels he’s got the size and power to match Madrimov, but I don’t think so. It would be bad for the 36-year-old Nebraska native to go head-to-head with Madrimov on Saturday night and try and beat him at his own game.
Crawford’s Audition
However, Crawford may have no other choice but to slug with Madrimov to entertain the fans on Saturday because this fight is a mini-audition for him to motivate Canelo Alvarez to face him in early 2025.
Crawford will not do that by running around the ring all night as he did against Jeff Horn, David Avanesyan, and Shawn Porter. He’s got to stand and fight Madrimov and be willing to take big punches to impress Canelo and the fans at the BMO stadium in Los Angeles.
Madrimov is expected to rehydrate to mid-170s by fight night on Saturday, and his power will be formidable.
Most agree that Crawford will have to change his fighting style if he wants to avoid getting clipped by Madrimov because he’s not fought anyone near the level of power as this guy before.
Too Little, Too Late
“It’s a little bit too late for that. It’s a little late in his career, and he’s up there in age,” said boxing expert Chris Algieri on Probox TV about whether Terence Crawford can increase his popularity with more social media interaction.
It’s way too late in the game for Crawford to become a star in the traditional sense, like a Sugar Ray Leonard from the 1980s. Crawford doesn’t have the personality or the charisma to become a crossover star that fans want to watch, and his fighting style is unsuited for stardom.
“He [promoter Eddie Hearn] spoke about the under-promotion of Terence Crawford, which I believe started in the Top Rank years,” said Algieri. “He was wildly under-promoted by Top Rank early on. The best promoter to build you is Top Rank, but they didn’t take that route with Terence. I don’t know if they didn’t see the crossover appeal.”
Top Rank wanted Crawford to help build interest in his career outside of the ring by giving more interviews and interacting on social media. He didn’t do that, and you can’t blame Top Rank for the “under-promotion” of Crawford.
“What Eddie says is part of it falls on Terence because he’s talking about his life and his kids. How much does he want to put out there? We live in a world of social media,” said Algieri.
Read the full article here
