Terence Crawford impressed fans on social media with the form he showed while working out at the Samurai Ninja Museum in Tokyo, Japan.
Terence Crawford’s Samurai Workout in Tokyo
Dressed in samurai attire, Crawford seemed to take it seriously when working out with his Japanese instructor after receiving sword lessons with a replica katana sword. The moves are choreographed to prevent injury.
The samurai class was officially abolished in Japan at the beginning of the 1870s. It would have been interesting to have a real samurai, intense and maybe a little hot-headed, hyper-alert for signs of disrespect, in there with Crawford from the 1800s. That would have been fun to watch.
Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) is on his victory lap after his narrow 12-round unanimous decision win over undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez on September 13th. That was a close one.
Real Samurai Faced Fear—Crawford Chose Safety
Terence hasn’t said who he’ll fight next. He has rejected a fight against David Benavidez, which showed how different he is from a true samurai. They were known for courage. In the traditional sense, refusing to fight Benavidez would be seen as a loss of honor. Would Crawford be cast out? It’s fair to say that he would.
Obviously, samurai felt fear like anybody, but they were about facing their fears by showing bravery. Crawford’s refusal to fight Benavidez is very unsamurai. It’s one thing to wear samurai garb and pretend, but it’s another thing to follow the samurai code of conduct, Bushido.
Samurai Form, Not Samurai Spirit
Crawford is expected to move down to 160 to go after an easier game against one of the world champions. He wants to become a six-division world champion, and that’s an easy path for him rather than going up to 175 to take on WBC champion Benavidez or IBF, WBA, and WBO champion Dmitry Bivol.
It would be more honorable for Crawford to fight one of those two, but the chances of failure would be high. And, of course, it would require samurai-like bravery from Terence.
Jeepers Isaac has been covering boxing since 2020, bringing readers sharp ringside insights and timely analysis on the sport’s biggest moments.
