CASES FOR VICTORY
In his own words Terence Crawford considers where he stands in the boxing world today
Both Crawford and Brook tell Boxing News about their battle plans
Twenty-twenty has been a rough year but at the same time we’ve got to go with the flow. Got to take it how it comes.
I was expecting to at least have two to three fights this year but all that came to a halt when the pandemic started.
I love to stay in the gym, I love to work out, get better. So me being in the gym it wasn’t nothing for me to stay motivated because I know sooner or later we’re going to get out of this pandemic and we’re going to get back to fighting. Right now we’re fighting with no crowd but at the same time there’s places that are allowing somewhat of a crowd.
I describe my style as versatile. I feel like there are numerous things that I can do in the ring that a lot of my opponents can’t do. I feel like that gives me the edge come fight night. Being able to switch southpaw, being able to fight going backwards, going forward, stand in the pocket, moving around. So I just feel all those attributes are key to winning.
I just look at myself as a complete fighter. There’s going to be times where you’re going to have some type of weakness but those are the times you’ve got to go to the gym and prepare to get better.
One of my favourite fighters was Roy Jones Jnr, and Floyd Mayweather. Those were the fighters that I liked to watch. Pernell Whitaker was another one. I liked the boxers. Fighters that fight off the back foot, smart fighters I should say.
Roy Jones’ exhibition with Mike Tyson is going to be exciting. I’m excited to see how it’s going to go. Those are two talented fighters that’s actually out of their prime but as you can see they’re both working very hard to give us all a good show. So it’s going to be good. It’s going to be what it is. They’ve been doing this all their life so I don’t think it’s going to be anything new. They’re just both out of their prime and older right now.
Life without boxing, I never really thought of that in a sense. I was always too focused on the job at hand, you know perfecting my craft and doing what I have to do to actually secure the number one spot pound-for-pound in the world. I never really looked at what I’m going to do after boxing yet.
I just always go in there, [thinking] this is where we’re at right now and I’ll think about what I’m going to do after boxing after boxing.
When you’ve been doing something for so long of course it’s just going to be hard for you to just kind of let that go. I’ve been boxing since I was seven years old, so it’s going to be really hard for me not to box, given that I’ve been doing it for so long.
There’s always more to achieve. I want to become welterweight undisputed champion of the world. For me to do that I’ve got to continue to stay on top of my game and beat these top welterweights in the division.
Of course I get frustrated and it bothers me sometimes but at the same time all I can do is stay focused and do what I got to do to continue to be one of the top fighters in the division.
I’ve been seeing myself as number one before they actually crowned me number one. Canelo’s a great talent as well. I feel like me and him are the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world right now.
Kell Brook is a great fighter. I don’t want to take nothing away from him. He’s a great talent. He’s going to come to fight. I feel like he has nothing to lose and everything to gain so that makes him very dangerous, so come fight night I’m going to be prepared for whatever he brings to the table.
He’s showed that he’s not scared to go up against a bigger stronger fighter in the likes of Gennady Golovkin and he showed that given the circumstances that he was up against he held his own as much as he could.
There’s a lot of exciting opponents that could be moving up into the division. Josh Taylor is a good talent, I take my hat off to him, he’s real good. I’m interested in seeing him and Jose Ramirez fight. That’s a great fight. You’ve got two talented fighters fighting each other, it’s going to be for sure a great fight.
I just wait it out. When the time comes, the time comes.