By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten WBO Welterweight Champion Terence Crawford of Omaha, Nebraska will be defending the title for the fourth time this Saturday, November 14th when he takes on former IBF Champion Kell Brook of Sheffield, England. Crawford last fought in December when he stopped Egidijus Kavaliauskas in the ninth round. Brook’s last action came in February when he stopped Mark Deluca in the seventh round for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Super Welterweight Crown. The 12-round bout takes place at the MGM Grand Bubble in Las Vegas and can be seen live in America on ESPN and ESPN Deportes while fans in Canada can catch it on TSN and those in the UK can view it on Premier Sports.
The 33-year-old Crawford enters the fight as a three-division world champ with a perfect record of 36-0 with 27 Kos. The former lightweight and super lightweight champion 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 74-inch reach. Crawford enjoyed an excellent amateur career and has boxed 204 rounds since turning pro in 2008.
He owns wins over the likes of Amir Khan, Jose Benavidez, Jeff 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 75 per cent. Crawford 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.
Crawford 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 2017’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 34-year-old Brook lost his IBF Welterweight Title to American Errol Spence when he was knocked out in the 11th round in May of 2017. He was also stopped in the fight before that when he moved up to middleweight to take on former WBA, IBF, IBO and WBC Champion Gennady Golovkin in a title fight in September of 2016 when he was halted in the fifth round. In addition, he also suffered facial injuries in the losses to Spence and Golovkin.
Brook put up an entertaining fight against Golovkin even though he moved up two weight divisions, but ultimately ended up with a broken orbital bone for his efforts. His fight against Spence was also an exciting one and he’s now looking for a fourth straight win to become a two-time world champion. Brook enters the ring on Saturday with an impressive record of 39-2 with 27 Kos.
He won the IBF title in August of 2014 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California with an impressive majority-decision win over former champ Shawn Porter of America. He then sat out a few months after he was stabbed with a machete in the leg during an attack while on holiday in Tenerife. He’s certainly not the biggest junior middleweight around as he stands 5-feet-9-inches tall with a 69-inch reach but is actually an inch taller than Crawford while giving up five inches in reach.
Brook turned pro in 2004 and has fought 216 rounds since. Before beating Porter, Brook was a former British Welterweight Champion. His biggest fights up until then were against the likes of Philip Kotey, Lovemore NDou, Matthew Hatton and Carson Jones. As far as power goes, Brook isn’t really known as a big hitter but his current knockout ratio stands at a pretty impressive 65.6 per cent and his power is slightly underrated. He also owns a pretty good chin despite the outcome of the Golovkin and Spence bouts and can fight on the back foot as well as going forward.
Prediction…
Crawford is an elite boxer but he can be hit and Brook will take advantage of that fact. The champion has a solid chin but still needs to be wary of Brook’s power. Brook has been fighting as a super welterweight for the past couple of years and may struggle slightly to make the weight and that could be a factor. Overall, this should be a good, close fight and test for Crawford and it’s one he should win. I believe he’ll do so, but he’s going to have to work hard for it and make sure he stays on his feet.
Crawford’s a slight class above Brook.
