Why Terence Crawford Has the Goods to Be a Top Pound-for-Pound Fighter

Terence “Bud” Crawford (24-0, 17 KOs) is the real deal. He’s fast, athletic, strong and skilled. In boxing, you can’t really hope for any more than that in a fighter.

He’s the total package.

The undefeated WBO lightweight titleholder is 27 years old and well-positioned to become boxing’s next big thing.

Former heavyweight champion Max Baer notwithstanding, elite prizefighters don’t usually come from Nebraska. But Crawford is a special case. The Omaha native climbed through the ranks the hard way, and he has earned his position as one of Bob Arum’s brightest young promotional interests.

Crawford’s professional career began in 2008. He knocked out Brian Cummings in Round 1 and ran his record to 19-0 before facing his first notable foe in 2013, Breidis Prescott. The Colombian is a hard puncher. He knocked Amir Khan out in 2008 but couldn’t land his hammer on Crawford over 10 full rounds. Crawford earned a unanimous decision.

After picking up two more wins, Crawford traveled to Scotland to yank the WBO lightweight title he now wears away from Ricky Burns. After taking the first three rounds to figure out Burns’ style, Crawford put his foot on the gas and raced past the champion right in his own backyard.

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Crawford followed up that effort up with another tremendous win. Talented Cuban Yuriorkis Gamboa had never tasted defeat as a professional. Moreover, he came into the bout needing to make a huge statement after promotional issues kept him inactive for a full year.

Gamboa threw everything he had at Crawford, but Crawford was just too much. He put Gamboa down to the canvas in Round 5 and Round 8 before finishing him off with two more knockdowns in Round 9.

It was a Fight of the Year candidate and a breakthrough performance by Crawford, a talented fighter who had too long remained under the radar of mainstream boxing fans.

As soft-spoken as Crawford is, there will be no more hiding for him now that he’s revealed his quality to the masses. He’s firmly positioned under HBO’s grand spotlight as comfortably as any up-and-coming fighter in the sport, and let’s face it—Bob Arum and company at Top Rank know how to promote such a fighter.

Crawford faces rugged veteran Ray Beltran (29-6-1, 17 KOs) on Saturday in a bout that will test the up-and-coming star as much as any he’s had to date.

Don’t let Beltran’s six losses fool you. The guy can fight. He’s tough, skilled and adept at making fighters who underestimate him pay dearly.

Beltran is most well-known for formerly being one of Manny Pacquiao’s chief sparring partners at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles.

There’s an abundance of experience a man accumulates when working every day with an all-time great like Pacquiao, and Beltran has shown it in recent bouts.

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In September 2013, he preceded Crawford’s journey to Scotland by going there himself to face Burns for the WBO title.

In nearly everyone's but the three judges' eyes at ringside, Beltran dominated Burns to earn the WBO strap. But boxing has a funny way of refusing to reward the underdog in front of the other guy’s home crowd, so Burns escaped with a split-decision win and enough welts on his face and body to avoid a rematch altogether.

A win by Crawford over Beltran would give him yet another impressive mark on his ledger. In fact, he’d be one of the front-runners to garner Fighter of the Year honors at year-end, and it would set him up nicely to take the boxing world by storm in 2015.

Crawford has the goods to be one of boxing’s top pound-for-pound fighters. Expect him to become exactly that in the very near future.

Kelsey McCarson is a boxing writer for Bleacher Report and The Sweet Science.

In December, he's sparring undefeated junior middleweight Jermell Charlo in an effort to raise money for Corbin Glasscock, a six-year-old from Tyler, Texas, recently diagnosed with bone cancer. You can help Kelsey help Corbin by contributing to Corbin's medical fund: www.GoFundMe.com/TeamCorbin.