Crawford will be one month away from his 37th Birthday by the time he faces Israil Madrimov. Madrimov is a decorated amateur and the best JMW in the game right now imo. He has slick Soviet skills, is very powerful, and has shown good versatility and can adapt to deal with the fighter in front of him in different ways. He is Crawford's toughest opponent so far I think. After the Spence win, Bud has been heralded as an unbeatable ATG, but that win really had more to do with Spence being damaged goods and not all that great in the first place. If Madrimov pulls off the upset, how will Bud be viewed and where will Madrimov sit in the P4P rankings?
By intelligent fans, his loss will be viewed as... oh well, 154 was a bridge too far. For casual and dumb fans, they'll discard him like they discarded Mikey Garcia post-Spence loss. For the record, Bud potentially losing this shouldn't be a shock to anyone. Egis hurt him badly, and Madrimov is 5 times the fighter than Kavaliauskas is.
This is a really interesting fight for me - Crawford still has a significant reach advantage, but Madrimov has skills and hits hard. Will be a really interesting fight and will tell us more about how great Crawford really is - especially as he is getting older and is facing bigger guys. I still favour Crawford, as I think he has the smarts and reach to get on his bike and potshot his way to a decision, but I don't think this will be anything like the Spence drubbing
I've watched some Madrimov fights and highlights recently and I don't think Bud's reach will be as big a factor here as it usually is. Madrimov gets his head off centre line constantly and is very quick on his feet so closes distance well. At times, he looks like a weird mix between Mike Tyson and Prince Naz actually. Madrimov usually gets low and changes levels a lot, feinting as he does so and mixing in shots as well, lots of which are these looping gazelle shots he loves, particularly his big left hook. I think he'll be very hard for Bud to accurately time or hit honestly, he's defensively responsible and will look to get under the jab I believe.
I think that it would show he's met his limit size wise. With that being said, I've seen some recent footage of Crawford and he looks huge, at least aesthetically it looks like he's always been a JMW so I'm very interested in what happens in this fight. I'd like to see how strong Crawford is in the clinch against such a large opponent.
Mikey was way smaller than Spence, Crawford is bigger than Madrimov. If he loses he deserves to be discarded. Also folks need to stop hyping Crawford up like he’s fighting a top 3 guy at LMW he’s not.
I don't think age will be a big factor for Crawford. He is in the gym and seems to live a pretty healthy life. So, if Madrimov happens to win, it should be considered a top level victory. I want to see the adaptation that plays out between the 2. We all know Crawford is a master at adaptation on the fly. Don't know how well Madrimov can adapt. Should be a good fight.
Discarded? The first man to be undisputed in 2 divisions? A a history maker. His name is forever stamped in the history books of boxing. You can try to down play that accomplishment, but if it was that easy, it would have been achieved a long time ago.
Bud ain't the first to be undisputed in 2 divisions, he's just the first to do it in the #4-belt era. The first ever 2 weight champion back when there was only one champ per division was the excellent George Dixon who won the bantamweight crown in 1889 and the featherweight crown in 1890.
