Unified junior welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) returns to the ring this Saturday night at Madison Square Garden to take on 2008 Dominican Olympic gold medalist Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs).
The fight will be televised on HBO beginning at 10:15 p.m. ET.
At just 29-years-old, Crawford already has notable wins against the likes of Ricky Burns, Yuriokis Gamboa, Hank Lundy, Viktor Postol and John Molina Jr.
[graphiq id=”jpaIpwgK3SR” title=”Terence Crawford” width=”500″ height=”667″ url=”https://sw.graphiq.com/w/jpaIpwgK3SR” frozen=”true”]There’s nothing that Crawford cannot do in the ring. He can outbox his opponents with his pinpoint accuracy, or he can outslug them. He can also be elusive and one of the most difficult fighters in the sport to hit. But perhaps his greatest attribute is his ability to fight from both the conventional stance and southpaw stance. This allows him to confuse his opponents because they don’t know what angle/stance Crawford will attack from.
This is why many experts and observers have Crawford in the top five of pound for pound list.
The World Junior Welterweight Championship is on the line as Terence Crawford takes on Felix Diaz this Sat at MSG! https://t.co/DVvtkHQSn7 pic.twitter.com/FabHMD0txd
— MSG (@TheGarden) May 16, 2017
The champ Terence Crawford working on that movement ?#CrawfordDiaz pic.twitter.com/AibSF3J6kM
— Against The Ropes (@ATRboxinguk) May 17, 2017
Crawford is a heavy favorite to win his 31st professional fight, but he is not taking Diaz lightly. The 33-year-old Diaz is an aggressive brawler who will try to attack Crawford from the opening bell. If there’s one knock on Crawford it’s that he tends to be a slow starter and generally takes two to three rounds to warm up. So if Diaz is going to pull off a huge upset, he’ll need to land something big early.
Even with that said, Crawford is simply on a higher level than Diaz. The fight might be competitive for a round or two, but Crawford will begin to outclass Diaz and eventually become the first man to ever knock him out.
