By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten American Terence Crawford will be defending his WBO Super Lightweight Crown this Saturday, October 24th when he takes on Dierry Jean of Haiti. The 12-round bout will be held at the CenturyLink Center in Crawford’s hometown of Omaha, Nebraska and will be broadcast live in North America on HBO and on BoxNation in Britain. This will be Crawford’s first defence capturing the vacant belt with a sixth-round stoppage of Thomas Dulorme back in April. Crawford is also a former lightweight champion.
The 28-year-old Crawford climbs through the ropes with a perfect record of 26-0 along with 18 Kos while the 33-year-old Jean is 29-1 and has 20 Kos to his name. Crawford stands 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 70-inch reach while Jean is just over 5-feet-6, but has a wingspan of 72 inches. Crawford has fought 120 rounds since turning pro in 2008 while Jean has 164 rounds under his belt since 2006. Crawford’s current knockout rate stands at 69 per cent while Jean’s is 67 per cent.
Crawford is one of the best American boxers out there today as he combines speed, skill and power with a good chin. However, he’s sometimes slow out of the gate and it takes him a few rounds to adjust and get going. Jean, who now fights out of Montreal, Canada, likes to press the action as he’s aggressive and also has good power in his fists. His last fight was a unanimous decision against Jerry Belmontes in June and the only other opponent most fans may know was Lamont Peterson, who beat him by a unanimous decision in January of last year in a title fight.
Crawford has excellent foot and hand speed and better-than-average power. He’s an accurate puncher who sometimes changes to southpaw and has a good chin. However, Jean also has good speed, power, chin and skills, so this should be a competitive fight. Basically, Crawford is the total package and could definitely be one of America’s next boxing stars as he’s already well on his way to being one. Crawford also owns wins over the likes of Raymundo Beltran, Breidis Prescott, Ricky Burns and Yuriorkis Gamboa while Jean’s best performances have been against Peterson, Belmontes and Ivan Cano.
Jean has pretty good power and likes to take the initiative once the bell rings. He’s got good hand speed to go with it and has a pretty solid chin. He’s the NABF lightweight title holder and has fought most of his bouts in Canada. This is definitely another step up in class for the Haitian/Canadian as Peterson and Belmontes are basically the only recognizable names on his list of opponents. He’s won four fights since the Peterson bout though and three of them have been stoppages.
Prediction
Crawford seems to have it all, but that doesn’t mean he’s unbeatable. There will probably come a time when he tastes defeat for the first time, but it won’t be this Saturday. He’s too skilled and determined to lose to Jean, but it will be a decent test for him. Look for Crawford to win by a decision or a stoppage in the second half of the fight.
