WBO welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford will defend his world title against undefeated mandatory challenger Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas on December 14 at Madison Square Garden as part of a special ESPN-televised tripleheader that will immediately follow the 2019 Heisman Trophy presentation.
The other two fights will be IBF lightweight world champion Richard Commey defending his title against Teofimo Lopez, and featherweight Michael “Mick” Conlan against unbeaten Vladimir Nikitin in a rematch of their highly controversial 2016 Olympic quarterfinal bout.
Well. The guy is undefeated and fighting a champion that is undefeated. Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas should get his title fight, since he is already past 31. And he’s getting a shot at a champion that is older than he is. And Kavaliauskas has had 5 NABF title fights in the past 2 years. To me, Crawford should leave Spence alone now. Just let him be whoever he is as a fighter, but the guy should retire. After something like that. Crawford had a bullet shot in his head, but that was like 11 years ago, and it was a deflected bullet through a car window. Crawford was lucky too, but Spence was thrown out of a car, that is really bad. You know Pacquiao should be retired, and Danny Garcia, Thurman, Porter, all those guys seem to be stuck in place over there at PBC. Mikey Garcia doesn’t seem to be looking to fight Crawford. Crawford can’t look past Kavaliaskas, but the other contenders are there:
4 Sergey Lipinets (Int-Cont) RUS
5 Mikka Shonena (WBO Africa) NAM
7 Custio Clayton (WBO International) CAN
8 Mikael Zewski (NABO) CAN
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1 Jack Catterall UK
Time for Crawford to fight at least one elite welter. He fights no names and gets a pound4pound ranking? He has not fought Garcia, Porter, Thurmond, Pacquiao or Spence. When is his management going to stop protecting him. Time to step up!
No one is protecting him. They are protecting their wallets and making the most money by playing his opponents no money and Bob Arum gets his promotors fee from both guys.
Crawford will start regressing instead of progressing if he keeps fighting “punch bags”. Arum is causing Bud Crawford tremendous amounts of damage.
Crawford will dominate
I sense a possible upset…
Egidijus “Mean Machine” Kavaliauskas??? Who the heck is this.. maybe if Bob Arum pulled his head out of his ass, Crawford could get some good opponents. And please don’t call out mikey garcia.. hes too small. Go after a Thurman or a garcia.. or even a porter… those r all good choices.
Wow…. talk about hot garbage!
Look I can’t believe that Crawford can be happy with all this. He’s stuck in a position where he’s got to force the issue and demand that his team and promoter make a big fight for him. The other top welterweight fighters are able to make big matchups and no matter how good we all think Crawford is, if he doesn’t get another top fighter than he shouldn’t have such a lofty p4p rating.
Great card!
Crawford needs to move in weight and fight Fury….
I dont think he ducks anyone.. The man says hes ready to fight anyone .. Hes undefeated and he beat Gamboa silly.. Hes not been taking cake fights.. But he makes them look like cake! I dont see ANYONE beating him. He’s likely one of the best boxers I ever saw. He can adapt like Joe Calzaghe did. Nobody is gonna beat him.. NOBODY!
Yes, you right, ANYONE KAVA LIAUSKAS won’t beat him, but NOBODY SPENCE will do the trick.(if one day gight)
Always fighting no names. A bunch of crap. If gamboa is your toughest opponent something is wrong as Gamboa was 130 pounds tops. Maybe even less lol
Dave Tiberi fought James Toney on regular TV in 1992. Dave Tiberi was shortchanged a decision win. Mr. Tiberi never fought again. He was that — disgusted — with the points loss against him. I watched the fight once, live. No one knew Mr. Tiberi then and now, but me and James. And probably the referee. In other words, you all need to remove your crystal balls and comprehend your ‘I never heard of this guy’ can be anyone’s Dave Tiberi. James fought four more times that year. Mr. Tiberi didn’t prevent James from having a very impressive 1992. Moreover, these belts are causing the confusion, not any single fighter. Although, it’s the fighters who N E E D to form a collaborative to exterminate the acronym belts and return to O N E King in each weight, same-day weigh-in and 15Rounds. These are fistiana’s gladiatorial anatomy. Copyright 2019 Coach Hilario
While Crawford keeps fighting this kind of opposition, for sure he will remain undefeated, but his run is going to be worst example of an unachieved boxer with that amount of talent.
Kavaliauskas is a decent volume puncher fighter, that gets his ko victories by crowding overmatched opponents, rather than a one punch ko power. I see only two decent names on his records (both went the distance) Abreu and Robinson.
I have seen this type of fighter before (Evgeny Gradovich comes to my mind) normally they are exposed and dissected when a good boxer is in front of them and Crawford is more than good.
I expect to see a demolition process from the get go that will last maybe 8 rounds.
Kavaliauskas will present a good effort to make the fight entertaining for sometime, but Crawford will be too much for him.
How is this fight even PPV? Crawford has to step up some time soon.
For me TC is a victim of his own ability in that none of the top guys want a piece of him.
He unified at LW and beat Burns (in Scotland) and a then highly touted Gamboa back to back.
Outside of Spence the main players are probably Pac , Porter and Thurman. No one knows what’s happening with Spence and not sure if he wants a piece of TC anyway.
Pac would be a decent fight but again I’m not sure they’ll want that fight. Porter and Thurman are both without belts so may be willing to fight him. Porter would be the one I’d try to make as he comes to fight and is a proven force who has just lost a debateable decision to Spence.
John: I can agree with ya to a point. Crawford is a great fighter, there is no doubt about that. I seriously doubt any of the top guys are ducking him though. Does he pose a treat to any of the elite Welter’s, absolutely. The deal is, WHY bother fighting this dude that is so tough and you get no reward for it.. Meaning Arum will likely be the winner of that fight or any of this fights. I would say victim of ability but more so victim of his promoter.. There is a reason no other promoters want to work with Arum anymore.
If anyone can take it to Bud, it would be the Pacman. He always knows how to deliver when it is all said and done, and he has a rapport with Arum so he wont get screwed in a paycheck as bad as others.. If Crawford stays on this path that he is on, he is definitely gonna waste his Prime Days on nobodies. Another option is Virgil Ortiz. up and coming But, a few more fights and he may be the next standout.
Oscar will never put Vergil Ortiz against Crawford, unless is an unification PPV – DAZN mega fight. I favor Ortiz in two years from now, but not now. He is 21 YO only with 14-0 record. Ì would love to see Vergil against Porter or Broner next year, also I don’t mind Lipinets or Yordenis Ugas
Agreed… I wld rather see him against Broner due to he is super durable but definitely not a threat. Bronner’s defensive skill level would allow Ortiz to polish up his boxing skills and get ready for the great fighters.
No John, TC is not a victim of his own ability, but rather of his own mistakes. Had he signed with a less conflicted and controversial promoter, like Eddie Hearn (Matchroom), he should be in a higher platform, but he decided to put his boxing career on Bob Arum’s hands.
What he has done for zurdo Ramirez, Ancajas and bunch more of great fighters?
If Crawford will end his boxing career involved just in less than average events is his own decision
Mikemiguel: Agreed!!!
Tony/Mike – I can see that TC should not have signed a long term contract with Arum but Mike , you mention Eddie Hearn. Hearn says he has less trouble dealing with Arum than he does Haymon.
Arum has been up and down with Eddie but what Eddie says is that Arum can have it out with you one day and the next day he’ll phone you about making a fight.
It looked to me like Wilder’s team wanted him to avoid AJ at all costs and it seems that Haymon wants complete control of boxing.
I think TC probably should have just signed a fight by fight deal and is probably lamenting his decision to ink a long term contract with BA , but I still think he is being guided away from partly because of his skill and partly due to politics.
I wonder if we’ll see a trend whereby elite fighters just sign fight by fight contracts , due to the politics etc?
John: Valid point. I can see a fight to fight deal happening with these fighters in the future but ONLY if all these fighters jump on board. Which UNFORTUNATELY These promoters entice them with a lucrative million dollar signing bonus (if their that good), and now their hooked. It’s a lesson learned for these fighters as they have to learn the hard way. But yes, I hope we do see a trend here soon for these young guys going per fight rather than long term.
I think fight by fight is ideal John, that is what a free boxer does.
Another joke fight, Crawford is disappearing, he will lose fan base if he keeps letting his career go to waste!!
People here keep questioning his opponents… Look at their rankings and their records.. Postol… Then consider the fact that Spence SAID he was not in a hurry to fight Crawford.. Lets not get that confused! The man fights whoever and beats them all. It’s not his fault if people duck him. End of story.
Spence, Pacman, porter, Thurman, Garcia, etc… NONE WILL BEAT CRAWFORD! He’ll have to leave the weight class for a real challenge. Loma is the only one that is a challenge.
That is certainly a possibility but until he fights them, it’s all talk. You cant say ur the baddest if ur not fighting the big dogs.. now, keep in mind Crawford swept his old division but who has he really fought at welter? Amir Khan is the only fighter at welter that has notable wins and a good resume but is definitely shop worn. Horn, a joke. Benavidez… well that one is up for debate.. any of the names u mentioned above would run thru all of Buds previous opponents as well.. so until Bud decides to step up and not let his ego get the best of him, we will jus have to settle for him fighting nobodies. We can say Bud is an A lister and the P4P best fighter of ALL the B list fighters.
Prograis said he wants to fight Crawford but “wont happen any time soon” citing that he wants to do things before that fight happens. So lets stop bashing Crawford. Go look up these guys and see their answer to fighting crawford before you bump your gums.
Did you really jus say “Bump your Gums” what are ya, like 10 years old lmao
Porter and Garcia already have mentioned they would fight him if the money is right. Thurman and Spence are both out for quite a while or maybe permanently. There it is, give it to Danny.. Pay the dude and lets see what Crawford has…
Oh Cali, stop talking BS. What happen is that Crawford is a dumb ass that having the golden opportunity to be a free boxer, decided to sign a long contract with a company known to have long a sour dispute with some big stars trying to leave the company. Soon they were free, they fortune changed for the best, like Mayweather, Cotto, Oscar De La Hoya, Mikey Garcia, Pacquiao and some others. Now he is condemned to be fighting no hopes and to be watching from a distance the real big events, like Pacquiao vs. Broner or Thurman, Spence vs. Porter, Mikey Garcia and maybe Danny Garcia.Everybody is ducking not him, but rather Top Rank and whoever is in there. That is an undeniable truth
Damn Spence is done. I hate it!!
Again, where is proof?!? You can see these guys say they “aint worried about crawford right now” as Spence said.. Or prograis saying “it aint happening any time soon”. Those are facts.. Not up for debate. Call his previous opponents what you want.. But nobody wants to fight him!!!