By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBO Welterweight Champion Terence Crawford of Omaha, Nebraska will be defending the title for the first time this Saturday, October 13th in his hometown when he meets undefeated Jose Benavidez Jr. of Panorama City, California. The 12-round bout can be seen live in the U.S. on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while fans in the UK and Ireland can catch it on BoxNation. Those in Canada can see it on TSN 2. Crawford captured the belt by stopping Jeff Horn in the ninth round in his last bout in June. Benavidez also fought in June when he stopped Frank Rojas in the first round. Crawford is a three-division world champ.
The 31-year-old former lightweight and super lightweight champion Crawford enters the ring with a perfect record of 33-0 with 24 Kos. He possesses excellent foot and hand speed and better-than-average power. He’s an accurate puncher who often changes to the southpaw stance and owns a solid chin, but sometimes gets off to a slow start. Basically, Crawford is the total package and is considered as one boxing brightest stars. He’s 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 70-inch reach. Crawford had an excellent amateur career and has boxed 177 rounds since turning pro in 2008.
He owns wins over the likes of Horn, Thomas Dulorme, Raymundo Beltran, Dierry Jean, Hank Lundy, Breidis Prescott, Ricky Burns, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Viktor Postol, John Molina Jr., Felix Diaz and Julius Indongo. He’s also got power to go along with his skills with a current knockout ratio of 73 per cent. He beat Burns by unanimous decision in 2014 for the WBO Lightweight title and defended it twice. He beat Dulorme by sixth-round stoppage for the vacant WBO Jr. Welterweight title in April, 2015 and defended it five times.
He also defended the WBC Jr. Welterweight crown three times after winning it from Postol by unanimous decision in July, 2016. He then became the undisputed champion of the division with last year’s third-round knockout over Indongo as he added the WBA and IBF belts to his collection. As mentioned, Crawford’s sometimes a slow starter, but improves as the fight goes on and he’s comfortable in both a boxing match and a slugfest. He’s regarded by most fans and experts as one of the world’s top pound-for-pound boxers for good reason.
The 26-year-old Benavidez now fights out of Phoenix, Arizona and owns a perfect mark of 27-0 along with 18 Kos. He’s a former WBA Interim and NABF Jr. Welterweight Champion who has boxed 123 rounds since turning pro back in 2010. Benavidez won the interim crown in Las Vegas back in December of 2014 when he beat former champion Mauricio Herrera by a close and controversial unanimous decision. Benavidez enjoyed a fine amateur career at 120-5 and at the age of 16 won a 2009 National Golden Gloves title to become the youngest boxer ever to win a national championship.
Benavidez didn’t waste any time turning pro as he did so the next year when he turned 17. He was the youngest pro boxer ever licensed by the Nevada State Athletic Commission as the commission recognized his exceptional boxing skills and exempted him from the minimum age requirement of 18.
Benavidez broke his hand in 2013 and sat out most of the year before returning in 2014. He stands 6-feet-2-inches tall and has a 73-inch reach. This gives him a considerable six-inch height advantage over Crawford along with a three-inch edge in reach.
Benavidez, who’s trained by Freddie Roach, also has pretty good power with a current knockout ratio of 67 percent. Along with beating Herrera, he’s also defeated Jorge Paez Jr., Francisco Santana, Matthew Strode and Frank Rojas. He hasn’t exactly been taking on top-grade boxers during his career and will definitely be stepping up in class against Crawford on Saturday night. However, he has the size and power to give Crawford some problems if he connects, but doesn’t possess the skills to simply outbox the champion.
Prediction…
There’s been some bad blood between Crawford and Benavidez before the fight and that should make it more interesting. Benavidez is quite a bit bigger than the champion and if he can use that to his advantage he might have some success. It’s hard to imagine him outboxing Crawford though, but he might have the power to do some damage. Crawford can be hit, but he’s shown a solid chin so far and it’s hard to go against somebody as skillful as him. I’m expecting Crawford to retain his belt in a good, competitive fight.
