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Terence Crawford Making his Case for P4P List with Dominant Win Over Ray Beltran

Do you think Terence Crawford should be in the top ten P4P List in boxing today?

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Crawford_mediaday_141124_005aBy Lou Eisen

Photo Credit; Chris Farina/Top Rank

Last night at the sold out CenturyLink Center in Omaha, Nebraska, hometown product Terence Crawford made the second successful defense of his WBO world lightweight title by scoring a one-sided unanimous decision over the number one contender in the world, Raymundo “Sugar” Beltran. Beltran was born in Mexico but now resides in Phoenix, Arizona, the home of Muhammad Ali.

There was more than just a hint of irony attached to this fight, which was broadcast on HBO. Beltran should have been the one defending the title rather than challenging for it. Why? Well, not too long ago, on Sept. 7, 2013, Beltran traveled to Scotland to challenge WBO world lightweight champion, Ricky Burns. The outcome of that fight was an absolute and utter disgrace to pro boxing and all of its fans. Beltran came very close to pitching a shutout on that night at the Scottish Exhibition Centre in Glasgow. To say that Beltran butchered Burns would be a cosmic understatement. Beltran broke Burns jaw in the second round, forcing Burns to have a titanium plate inserted into his jaw after the bout ended.

Beltran also sent Burns crashing to the canvas in round eight with a heavy thud. It was very hard finding even a single round to score in Burns favor. One bad sign for Beltran during the fight was that the bout was being refereed by the worst referee in Europe and one of the worst in the world, Brit Phil Edwards. Burns threw a myriad of low blows, elbows and head butts without incurring even a single warning from referee Edwards, known as the “Laurence Cole,” of Europe. For the uninitiated, Laurence Cole works in Texas as a referee and is considered to be the worst boxing referee in the world today.

When the fight ended that night in Glasgow, incredulously, the result was a split draw! Seriously! What is a split draw? Well, one judge scored it for Burns while the other judge scored the fight for Beltran and, the third judge scored the bout a draw. This scribe had it 120-107 for Beltran. Well, not too long after that debacle, Crawford traveled to Scotland and demolished Ricky Burns, taking his WBO lightweight world title by a wide unanimous decision.

That takes us to tonight’s showdown between the consensus two best lightweights in the world today. Beltran was given a very good chance to beat Crawford due to his heavy hands, good chin and his ability to punch in combinations. Unfortunately for the amiable challenger, that simply wasn’t the case, as Beltran did not let his hands go often enough to win the fight and the title that should have been his to begin with.

Perhaps it might be more apropos to say that Crawford beautifully out-boxed Beltran and stymied his attempts to land any significant shots rather than Beltran did not throw enough shots to win the fight. Both statements are true but Crawford’s outstanding defensive abilities didn’t allow Beltran many opportunities to get busy in the bout.

Crawford said before the fight that he felt bad for Beltran because he thought that Beltran had beaten Burns by a wide margin too. Unfortunately for Beltran, that’s as far as Crawford’s goodwill extended this night. Crawford’s hands and feet were just too fast for Beltran and, the champion’s ability to spin off the ropes, slip shots and land his lightning quick jab consistently in every round proved to be the difference in the fight.

Let’s not forget Crawford’s chin. Crawford has one of the best beards in all of boxing. When you combine that with his mastery of head feints, he is very difficult to catch flush with a hard shot let alone a series of combinations; and after a while, that became very frustrating for Beltran. Beltran came out in the first two rounds looking good while executing his pre-fight strategy of cutting off the ring and letting his hands go quite well.

Even at very close range, Beltran had trouble finding his range and landing any more than one shot at a time on Crawford. Beltran spent many years as a sparring partner for Manny Pacquiao and as the fight wore on he began to fight more and more like a sparring partner by holding back and allowing Crawford to take control of the fight. Beltran did catch Crawford with some hard shots but rarely landed enough shots at a time to win a round. Ringside Report gave Beltran two rounds in the fight. In the end, Crawford’s ring generalship and brilliant technical skills proved to be too much for Beltran to handle.

By the middle rounds Beltran was, reduced to chasing Crawford around the ring in an effort to potshot him with one blow at a time. Beltran was looking to get lucky with one big shot rather than concentrating on touching up Crawford more often in an effort to put some rounds in the bank. The final outcome was never in doubt. With the win, Crawford’s record improves to 25-0, KO17, while Beltran’s record falls to 29-7-1, KO17. Even though the fight was one-sided there was plenty of action in every round and Beltran never ceased trying to land that one big punch that could turn the fight around in his favor.

Judges Adalaide Byrd and Cesar Ramos had identical scores of 119-109 while judge Bill Lerch had it 120-108, all for Crawford. Ringside Report scored it 118-110 for Crawford as well. Crawford announced immediately after the fight that he can no longer make the lightweight limit and is now moving up to the very stacked junior-welterweight division.

The night wasn’t completely bad for Beltran. There was still a proverbial silver lining in his dark cloud; with Crawford’s announcement that he is vacating the division to go compete at junior-welterweight, Beltran will surely get another shot at the title. As long as he stays away from Scotland, and with Crawford out of the picture, Beltran stands a good chance of finally winning the world lightweight title. Maybe, just maybe, for Beltran, the third time will be a charm.

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