THE LONG BATTLE FOR
RECOGNITION T he first time I ever laid eyes on Terence Crawford was in March 2013 when he faced Colombian knockout artist Breidis Prescott on the Brandon Rios vs. Mike Alvarado 2 undercard. I didn’t attend the fight, which took place in Las Vegas. I was already covering boxing professionally, but this was one of those nights when a dedicated U.K. fan sets their alarm for 2 a.m. and gets up bleary-eyed to catch some big- fight action from across the Atlantic. It’s a process that many of us Brits have gone through dozens of times before and may even be responsible for my coffee addiction. After Crawford had put the finishing touches on a lopsided 10-round unanimous decision over Prescott, I found myself very impressed by the 25-year-old from Omaha. Not only was the performance excellent, but Crawford had accepted the fight at less than two weeks’ notice and moved up to 140 pounds to make it happen. The motivation was his HBO Boxing debut. One year later, Crawford was in my home country of Scotland for his first world championship fight. Ricky Burns was the WBO lightweight titleholder, a proven warrior, and he hadn’t lost a fight for seven years. While the amiable Scotsman had been very fortunate to retain his title in a contentious draw with Ray Beltran six months earlier, he still presented a significant step up in class for “Bud” Crawford. At the time, Burns trained just 15 minutes from my home under the guidance of his then-coach, the esteemed Billy Nelson. I was allowed access to the gym once a week, so I was privy to Burns’ grueling preparation for what was his ninth world title fight. When he walked into the gym on a cold Friday morning at the end of a long week of training, I said to him, “Ricky, this guy you’re fighting is either really special, or you’ll totally expose him. I don’t think there’s an in-between.” Other people’s opinions meant little to a man like Burns. He was accustomed to being written off
TERENCE CRAWFORD BELIEVES THAT HE’S NEVER RECEIVED THE RESPECT HE DESERVES. THAT’S JUST ONE OF THE THINGS THAT WILL DRIVE HIM WHEN HE TAKES ON MEXICAN ICON CANELO ALVAREZ IN THEIR SUPERFIGHT By Tom Gray
and had torn up the script more than once. “We’ll see,” he said with a sardonic smile.
Illustration by Chris Wormell
60 RINGMAGAZINE.COM
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