“The Standing Eight Count”- Terence Crawford, Tyson Fury and More

By Dave Wilcox

The sport of Boxing can be quite frustrating at times. It sometimes seems as if our beloved sport tries real hard to make us not tune in. We have to deal with superstars refusing to fight each other for half a decade, young Russian wrecking balls beating up poor defenseless former champs and the 62 year old star of 9 ½ weeks actually get licensed to fight a professional prize fighter.

You would think this much garbage would be too much for a guy like me to overcome.

Then Terence Crawford shows up….

Crawford is the WBO lightweight champion and defended his title Saturday night in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska against tough guy, Ray Beltran. In a one-sided affair, Crawford showed tremendous speed, skill and intelligence as he wiped out Beltran easily by the scores of 119-109, (twice) and 120-108. RSR had it 120-108.

I love Terence Crawford and he could be the one to bring us to sanity post the two guys that won’t fight each other. Crawford is smart, unbelievably talented and just seems like a very nice young man. He throws punches sharply with either hand, he moves gracefully about the ring and has a little pop to boot.

It’s also nice to see a title fight taking place somewhere other than Las Vegas or New York. Don’t get me wrong, I love the two Boxing capitols of the world, but it’s refreshing to see hometown fights, especially in a place like Nebraska. See, there is more to life in Nebraska than Cornhusker football.

It appears the lightweight limit of 135 pounds is too much for Crawford to bear, so he will now make his way to 140 and go after some big money fights against some potentially very big names.

If I know my boxing superstars like I think I do, they will avoid Terence Crawford like I avoided my mother in-law.

Thank you Terrance Crawford for bringing some sanity into a Boxing weekend that tried real hard to be a punchline.
Speaking of punchlines, did anyone catch that Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora rematch?

What was once the biggest prize in sports, “The Heavyweight Championship of the World” has sunk to this?

Tyson Fury became the mandatory challenger to Wladimir Klitschko after his victory over Chisora on Saturday night in London. It was a one sided snooze fest in which Chisora’s trainer threw in the towel after the tenth round to save his fighter and us viewers any more punishment.

Never thought the day would come that I would look back on the Heavyweight division of the 80’s and miss it so dearly. What I wouldn’t give to see a Mike “Hercules” Weaver left hook or a Larry Holmes jab just one more time.

My early prediction for Klitschko vs Fury is that Wlad will KO Fury with ease inside of two rounds and I won’t be able to watch it, because I’ll be too busy on that Saturday afternoon to find a feed to the telecast.

Random Thoughts…..

-The tweet of week: This week’s tweet comes from Florida State Quarterback, Jameis Winston.
“Sometimes I think that thinking is overrated” Yes Jameis, we know you do.

-Is Pete Rose in the Baseball Hall of Fame yet?

Keep punching….