By Ian S Palmer
Unbeaten American Terence Crawford will be defending his WBO Lightweight Crown this Saturday, November 29 when he takes on Raymundo Beltran of Mexico. 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 second defence of the belt since capturing it from Scotsman Ricky Burns in Glasgow earlier this year via a unanimous decision. His first defence was a June stoppage of Yuriorkis Gamboa in nine rounds.
Beltran came close to winning the title before Crawford did as he also travelled to Scotland to face Burns on September of 2013. However, he was handed a controversial split-decision draw last. The 27-year-old Crawford climbs through the ropes with a perfect record of 24-0 along with 17 Kos while the 33-year-old Beltran is 29-6-1 and also has 17 Kos to his name. They both stand 5-feet-8-inches tall, but Crawford has a two-inch reach advantage. Crawford has fought 102 rounds since turning pro and Beltran has 195 rounds under his belt. His last contest came back in April when he beat Arash Usmanee by a 12-round unanimous decision.
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. Beltran likes to press the action as he’s aggressive and also has good power in his fists. He’s not the fastest guy around and that could hurt him against a champion as swift as Crawford. Beltran can’t afford to let Crawford dictate the pace and needs to keep him off balance.
Beltran’s been beaten by Luis Ramos Jr, Sharif Bogere, Ammeth Diaz, Agnaldo Nunes, Steve Trumble, and Victor Manuel Mendoza. Diaz and Trumble both stopped him in the fourth round. His biggest wins have been against the likes of Usmanee, Ji-Hoon Kim, and Henry Lundy.
Crawford won’t mind it if Beltran initiates the action as he’ll try to nail him with speedy and accurate combinations when he gets within range. If Beltran should happen to miss while moving in then Crawford will gladly make him pay with his stinging jab and counter shots. Beltran’s going t have to eat a few jabs to get inside, but his lack of speed isn’t going to make it easy. If he does manage to get close to Crawford he needs to bang him t the body and head with relentless pressure and then get the hell out of the way of return fire.
Prediction
It’s highly unlikely that Beltran’s going to be able to outbox Crawford so his best chance is to hurt and stop him. But Crawford’s just too quick and accurate for him and also has enough power to stop the challenger if he leaves himself open. Beltran’s best plan of attack would be to take it to the champion early before he can get into any type of rhythm. Since Beltran also has a decent chin this fight could go the distance with Crawford retaining the title by unanimous decision, but there’s also the chance of a late stoppage.
