Has Terence Crawford joined the welterweight elites? Courtesy of the nobody-predicted-that-kind-of-domination Crawford showed in his fight with a superb operator in in Errol Spence, the painfully one-sided stoppage win seeing “Bud” walk out of the ring with all four 147 pound belts, maybe he has indeed. Certainly, this is the way plenty of people are talking right now.
Crawford is one of the special ones, of that there is no doubt. And, with the special ones of the sport comes the temptation, the desire to start dreaming – as in we fans start dreaming up, well, Dream Fight scenarios in our ever-fertile minds.
And, man, oh, man, here’s one for ya:
It was, as his many millions of fans know, 43 years ago today when the legendary Thomas Hearns won (see tore away from the defending champion) the WBA welterweight title, this in his short and sweet fight with/destruction of feared Mexican bone crusher Pipino Cuevas. With his devastating win, Hearns – with whom Crawford has at times been likened – had set his stall: he was now the man to fear, the man to respect.
Crawford, although he is somewhat dwarfed by Hearns in terms of height and reach, as are any and all 147 pounders from the sport you care to mention (Tommy standing 6’1” and having a reach of 78-inches, “Bud” standing 5’8” and having a wingspan of 74-inches), does have a similar physical appearance to Hearns. Like Tommy, Terence is tall and sleek, and he doesn’t look like a man capable of punching with the kind of spite and venom he has shown in the ring (Hearns was and is in a class all by himself in terms of holding sick welterweight punching power).
Add it all up – the fact that both guys can box as well as they can punch, how both men are born with an absolutely unquenchable desire to win, how both champions always step into the ring in nothing but tip-top shape, how both men love the limelight and raise their game in order to please the paying fans – and you have here one heck of a Dream Fight!
No, I’m not going to say who wins (I would pick Hearns, but I’m biased as hell, this as he is my all-time favourite fighter, bar-none), but this is certainly one to think about. To talk about. Maybe even to argue about.
Hearns looked chillingly unbeatable before he ran into a guy named Ray Charles Leonard. While as of now, Crawford doesn’t appear to have anyone approaching a nemesis in his ring life.
Oh, and one more thing, can you imagine how intense, how smouldering, how downright scary the stare-down would have been as Hearns and Crawford met in the middle of the squared circle and touched gloves! There is a facial similarity between these two greats, as there is something of a similar fighting style.
Together, Hearns and Crawford would have given the watching world a sheer spectacular. And, as magnificent as both men are, it’s likely they would have met more than once.