THE MGM Grand is full of boxing fans. They loiter around the Broadcast Center hoping to get a glimpse of their idols. People like Bernard Hopkins, Evander Holyfield and Mike Tyson have all been spotted today. A slight figure walks through the crowd unnoticed. Itโs Terence Crawford, a fighter touted by some experts to be the heir to the crown that Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao contest on Saturday night.
Crawford has been a revelation since he dominated Ricky Burns over 12 rounds to claim the WBO lightweight title last year. Since then, quality trio Yuriorkis Gamboa, Raymundo Beltran and Thomas Dulorme have been thrashed and a second world title at light-welterweight gained.
In his home of Omaha, Nebraska, 27-year-old Crawford is a star. But the rest of the world is largely unaware of his brilliance.
Watching Crawford fight โ fluid, intelligent, and spiteful โ itโs easy to imagine him one day ruling boxing. But today itโs a tougher vision to conjure. Quiet and polite, he seems a long way from becoming a superstar in a noisy world.
โI just worry about keep getting better,โ he tells Boxing News about taking the torch from Mayweather and Pacquiao one day. โI donโt worry about all the other things that people say because you can easily get sidetracked. I just keep working, keep working, on my craft so I can get to the level of Mayweather and Pacquiao.โ
Crawford has fought in front of around 12,000 people in Omaha. But the Mayweather-Pacquiao showdown is on another level altogether.
โWho wouldnโt want to fight on a stage like this?โ he asks with a smile. โThis shows what itโs all about and what youโre working for.โ
The Nebraskan admits he doesnโt envy the task in front of either fighter on Saturday night. Both, he believes, would be hard to fight but predicted that Mayweather would ultimately triumph on points.
โI donโt know [how to beat Mayweather]. I would have to train and come up with a great plan that nobody else came up with. All his opponents have tried different plans, and all of them have failed. Iโd have to come up with a good plan.
โIโd just box Manny Pacquiao. Itโs all about smart boxing.โ
Crawford is all about smart boxing. About picking the right moment to strike. With Mayweather and Pacquiao at the end of their careers, Crawford is in position to strike. One suspects the next time heโs in Vegas he wonโt go unnoticed.
WE TELL YOU WHO WINS THE MAYWEATHER-PACQUIAO SHOWDOWN