A long day-night of boxing at the BMO Stadium in Los Angeles was capped off by the main event between WBA junior middleweight champion, Israil Madrimov, and the highly decorated Terence Crawford. What was thought to be a perfunctory exchange of titles, ended up being much more complicated for Crawford.
The relatively unknown Madrimov, who came into this bout with less than a dozen fights under his belt, made life very difficult for 'Bud' by employing deft footwork, a dizzying display of feints, and the occasional lead right hand. But down the stretch Crawford bit down and won the final rounds.
And with that he won a tightly contested majority decision by the scores of 115-113 (twice) and 116-112.
Matchroom Boxing
“He wasn’t throwing wild shots like I was wanting him to do," said Crawford. I figured it out from the get-go, but I was being patient. I didn’t wanna rush in with anything; that’s how I got caught a couple of times, trying to eat too soon.”
But in winning a belt in his fourth weight class (after being undisputed at 140 and 147) the nature of this victory didn't exactly whet the appetite for a showdown with Mexican superstar, Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez, who is currently the undisputed champion at super middleweight.
The logic -- and it is sound -- is that if Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) couldn't blow out an inexperienced Madrimov (10-1-1, 7 KOs), how will he handle the size and strength of Alvarez? But keep this in mind, Alvarez does not possess the footwork and movement of Madrimov. Stylistically, it would be a much different fight.
Yet, the close nature of this contest now has most observers believing that Crawford has hit his weight ceiling. And to be fair, this is a 36 year old who is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning. And now he has entered his fourth weight class. You get the sense that for him, an Alvarez fight would be part of a well-earned retirement plan.
German Villasenor
When asked about the possibility of that match-up, Crawford replied: “If the money’s right, we got a fight, but at the same time, he’s got a fight that he’s focused on. I’m going to relax, enjoy this win."
Should he stay at junior middleweight, he has a host of solid options from Vergil Ortiz (who faces Serhii Bohachuk this upcoming weekend), Tim Tszyu, and Sebastian Fundora, among others, to choose from. Those would be solid resume' building wins before he walks off into the sunset.
As for Madrimov, while he lost, a measure of respect was gained in his effort. He not only gave Crawford one of the toughest nights at the office he's ever had. Madrimov also landed as many good, hard clean punches as anyone who has ever faced Crawford. But you could see that he could've used a bit more seasoning as a fighter.
“Israil was a tough competitor," said Crawford. "I knew he was gonna be tough, I knew all about him when I went to Uzbekistan. He’s really strong, he’s durable, he took a lot of good shots. He got me to round 12. He had fast feet, good rhythm upstairs, and he was strong. And he was waiting to counter me, just like I was trying to counter him.”
German Villasenor
As for Madrimov he may look back on this and regret not being a bit more active in his punch output. While he was the defending champion, it was clear from who walked out first into the ring, and who was introduced last, that Crawford who was the star of this show. Those close rounds where not much was happening, simply weren't going to be scored in his favor.
“I made a couple mistakes, but I felt I did enough in each round,” Madrimov said. “I was holding myself back a lot too, so in the rematch I can make a lot more. I already know what to do and can push harder.”
Madrimov may have lost on this night. But he also arrived.
QUICK HITTERS
Some thoughts on the rest of the card...
- Like most everyone else, I thought Andy Ruiz was very fortunate to get a draw against Jarrell 'Big Baby' Miller. After a quick start, Ruiz was consistently out-worked by Miller for much of this 12 round slog. It says a lot when a crowd that was majority Mexican, loudly booed the decision.
German Villasenor
- Now, on the flip side, the audience wasn't really happy with the decision rendered for Jose 'Rayo' Valenzuela over Isaac 'Pit Bull' Cruz for the WBA junior welterweight title. While Cruz was dogged in his pursuit of Valenzuela, he wasn't landing all that much. Valenzuela was boxing effectively for most of the rounds.
- As a super middleweight, David Morrell looked like a monster. Well, he looked much more tame in his light heavyweight debut against the experienced Radivoje Kalajdzic. Yes, he won handily on the scorecards (117-111, 117-111 and 118-110), but much like David Benavidez, he showed that moving up in weight and keeping the same dominance is easier said than done.
- In what was the most explosive performance of this never-ending pay-per-view card, heavyweight Martin 'Mayhem' Bakole bludgeoning Jared Anderson in five rounds. Bakole sent the undefeated Anderson crashing to the floor in the first. Anderson, gamely tried to fight his way back, but kept lingering in no-mans land defensively, and kept getting struck by the heavy hands of Bakole.
Anderson was sent down twice more in round five, and the bout was waved off.
German Villasenor
It's easy to kick a young man when he's down. But I'll just say this, it's hard to maximize your ability when you seem to have one foot out the door in this game. For awhile I've gotten the sense that Anderson isn't all-in on boxing.
FINAL FLURRIES
Do we really need a mini-concert when you have half-hour interludes between fights? The Riyadh Season cards are loaded, but they don't need to be this long, right?...Eminem did not play to rave reviews on my Twitter timeline... BMO Stadium ain't bad, but geez, they have the slowest concession lines I've ever seen. The lines move slower than the DMV on a Monday morning...I can be reached at k9kim@yahoo.com....
