Israil Madrimov vs Terence Crawford possible for August 3rd

How is Jermello a ''champ in recess'' when he hasn't fought at 154 in 2 years and his last world title defence at that weight was 2 years ago too? He's been stripped of or relinquished all his world titles.

That being said, Crawford should be fighting Madrimov in Saudi not having his 40th fight in the US on a deck heavily stacked in his favour again.

Crawford travelled to Burns' backyard to win his first world title at 135

Fought for the vacant 140 WBO title vs Dulorme in the US

Postol and Indongo both brought their world titles to the US for him to become undisputed

147 champ Horn brought his world title to the US in order for Crawford to become a three weight champion

Three belt champ a fellow countryman. Spence obviously fought him in the US in order for Crawford to become undisputed

And now 154 champ Madrimov should fight him in the US in order for Crawford to become a four weight champ when the Saudis would like to stage the fight over in Saudi on a much more level playing field?

 

Crawford has only fought outside the US once in 40 fights, all the foreign world champs he's fought sans Burns brought their titles to his country, Madrimov is the champ not Crawford and we know that the chances of him getting robbed over in the US are extremely high and virtually nonexistent for Crawford. Madrimov is the champ, the money is over in Saudi, and the Saudi's allegedly have shown interest in staging the fight and it will be a more level playing field over there. Is Crawford doing an Andre Ward?

 

I'm not disputing he's more talented and he's obviously way more experienced than 10 fight novice Madrimov and has fought at a much higher level than him. Madrimov has also only been fighting once a year for the last three years which is crazy for a prospect of so few fights. And the fact that Crawford is bigger than Madrimov with a much longer reach than him and will likely be significantly bigger than him at 154 given it's his fourth weight class is also crazy. They say weight classes exist for a reason and whilst there is truth to that how much of an advantage is weight for a ''bigger'' fighter vs a fighter coming up in weight when ''bigger'' actually means smaller?

So everything sans youth and power is in Crawford's favour so that begs the question why does he need even more in his favour by having home advantage when the Saudis are apparently keen on staging it over there? We know the chances of Madrimov getting robbed are extremely high in the US.

The reason I give Madrimov a chance with all these disadvantages stacked against him is his power is very much legit and Crawford, as said, has managed to have 40 fights but somehow has barely fought any legit punchers, especially ones his size, let alone KO artists. Not saying he's been deliberately avoiding them, outside of Super Boots that is, but he's just been lucky in the regard that the minefields he's traversed throughout his career has been filled with mines which are not life-threatening ones and on one of the extremely rare occasions he did fight a legit banger his size he got dropped.

 

Don't get me wrong. Contrary to what many think, I do rate Crawford highly, I have had him ranked top 3 P4P for a very long time, I do like his fighting style sans sans that constant ''probing'' jabbing thing and somewhat of his protege Shakur does which is essentially a sneaky way of stiff-arming, and I do not dislike him. He's an excellent fighter and one of the most skilled in the sport. That being said, all my criticisms about him and his weak resume are legit.

As you say, Madrimov isn't just a crude puncher and it will be interesting to see how Crawford's whiskers hold up under that kind of firepower because, as said, Madrimov is the size of a 24 hour weigh in 147 pounder who hits like a 160 pounder and if he can et past Crawford's reach, and that sneaky stiff-arming thing he does makes it that much more difficult, Crawford is going to be tasting power like he's never tasted before.