After the fight: Significance of Terence Crawford’s win and many ways to lose in Vegas

Terence Crawford’s win over Kell Brook made a statement, and a fight with Errol Spence Jr. needs to be made. Also, boxing loses credibility with replay.

WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford has been a pound-for-pound talent for some time. Unfortunately, it took a show-stopping knockout over Kell Brook for a fair amount of fans and pundits to recognize the depth of Crawford’s talent.

It may not be fair, but fans are going to compare boxers’ performances against common opponents. Brook was a substantial welterweight force for years, but that all ended in 2016 when he had his face shattered against a much bigger Gennadiy Golovkin. Boxingscene.com pointed out the hubris of the idea in hindsight, but it significantly changed the course of Brook’s future and not for the better.

He was never the same after eating Golovkin’s best punches for five rounds, and his facial structure was never the same either. He suffered a serious orbital bone fracture and another orbital break in his next fight with Errol Spence Jr. He lost his IBF welterweight title in 11 rounds and hasn’t had a significant belt around his waist since.

Brook’s loss to Spence occurred in 2017, but three years later, Crawford took care of him in four rounds. People are quick to say that Crawford’s breakdown of Brook bests Spence’s 2017 performance. While it’s true, it’s not an apples to apples comparison.

A lot has gone wrong for Brook over the last four years. Having his face broken twice in a row is part of the problem, but fighting Father Time was the other. Four years makes a world of difference to a boxer, especially when they’re in their 30s. Brook at 34 is far from the fighter he was at 30. The punishment he took from Golovkin and Spence took their toll as well.

I’m not trying to discount Crawford’s win. I believe he’s the best welterweight in the world, but he fought a Brook who has been put through the wringer. It’s not fair to say that Crawford is better than Spence because he stopped him seven rounds earlier than Spence. Crawford fought a different incarnation of Brook than Spence.

People are using the Brook comparison to elevate Crawford over Spence. Take my old debate partner and friend ShowBizz the Adult, for example. During our second debate in our Instagram series, ShowBizz was convinced that Spence was the better welterweight champion. After the knockout of Brook, he’s convinced that Crawford is the best boxer in the world. That’s a big shift of opinion in six months.

Don’t say that Crawford is better than Spence because of the Brook fight. Say he’s the better fighter because he has a track record of being one of the world’s best boxers. It wasn’t that long ago that Crawford was the undisputed junior welterweight champion. That’s something that Spence and most premier boxers haven’t accomplished.

Crawford isn’t as powerful as Spence, but he isn’t far off either. Spence has an 80 percent knockout rating compared to Crawford’s 75 percent. Crawford also has 11 more fights under his belt than Spence.

Terence Crawford made a statement against Kell Brook, but he needs to fight Errol Spence Jr. for the greater good of boxing

Crawford’s ability to switch stances and destroy people fighting as both a righty and a lefty is unique. He can change his style on a dime. His mental acuity brings his fight game to another level. As ITR Boxing’s Lucas Ketelle recently pointed out, Crawford often flys under the radar because he isn’t the most boisterous fighter around. He relies more on his boxing ability to sell fights than his mouth.

The viewing ratings for Crawford vs. Spence haven’t been released, but expect them to be prodigious. ESPN is the biggest name in sports entertainment, to begin with, but they had a lead-in from college football to draw in some new spectators. The instant replay drama between junior bantamweights Joshua Franco and Andrew Moloney helped to percolate the tense atmosphere.

FIGHTHYPE’s Sean Zittel got Twitter buzzing with action as he masterfully captured Top Rank’s Bob Arum in an agitated state, saying he wanted to “get the f**k out of Vegas” after the horrendous replay fiasco that robbed Moloney out of regaining the WBA title he lost to Franco in June. That video gold has netted over 215,000 views alone.

It certainly helped the push to get Terence Crawford’s name as the number one trending topic on Twitter and Google in real-time. That’s a stat that’s likely to make boxing enthusiast, social media expert, and film producer Jay Chaudhry proud. He often tracks the impact social media has on a boxer’s marketability and extending the sports fanbase.

Those two figures alone brought an audience to Crawford, which he mesmerized with his sudden annihilation of Brook. Crawford is sure to have many more social media followers today than he had before he knocked Brook silly. That also means that his star has grown.

Crawford’s gain was Vegas’s and the Nevada State Athletic Commission’s (NSAC) loss. They proved that bad refereeing could even permeate beyond the ring to spoil a necessary and useful convention such as instant replay. NSAC commissioner Bob Bennett has always had boxing’s best interest in mind. Still, incompetent referees who continually get work despite monumental flubs found a way to ruin the validity of instant replay when they incorrectly ruled Franco vs. Moloney a No Decision.

What’s NSAC’s loss is Crawford’s gain because he didn’t leave his fate in the judges’ hands.

Long story short, Crawford is a bonafide star that’s one fight away from becoming the biggest name in boxing. Put him in with Spence ASAP.

The Ring’s Ryan O’Hara said it best, “Spence and Crawford are both calling out a Manny Pacquiao that will turn 42 years of age next month. They need to fight each other. End of story.”

The winner of Crawford vs. Spence is the name in boxing. Jump on it now because opportunity is a fleeting quality.  Just ask Deontay Wilder. Take the fight now while you still can. Crawford and Spence are both in their 30s. The window on a megafight is closing. The time is now for Crawford, Spence, fans, and all of boxing.