Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BULLETPROOF
Crawford survived shooting and then turned life around
TERENCE CRAWFORD is so tough not even a bullet can stop him. Crawford was shot in the head 11 years ago in his home city of Omaha in America’s Midwest as he sat in his car counting his winnings from playing dice in the street.
The bullet hit him on the right side of his head, just below the ear, and could easily have killed him had it not changed trajectory as it passed through the car’s back window.
Crawford did not panic and drove himself to hospital, bleeding from his wound, calling his mum Deborah and trainer Brian Mcintyre en route to tell them what happened.
His injuries were not serious, he had stitches and was discharged. Incredibly, he was back in the ring two months later, recording the fifth win of his perfect 34-0 professional career, which has brought him six world titles at three weights.
Crawford, who was 20 at the time, has moved on from that September night in 2008 and shut down any reference to it at his media work-out in Manhattan ahead of Saturday’s fight with Amir Khan, saying: “I don’t want to talk about it.”
The experience changed him and he rejected his tearaway lifestyle to dedicate himself to boxing.
“I’m a man now, who has a lot of things going for him,” said Crawford, as considered with his words as he is with his punches. “That’s it. I’m proud of where I am now and I’ve worked very hard to get here.”
Crawford’s win over Ricky Burns in Glasgow in 2014 to claim the WBO lightweight title was the launchpad.
He has reeled off 11 successful world title wins since, sweeping all before him at lightweight, lightwelterweight and now welterweight.
He is still rising and wants IBF champ Errol Spence Junior after he faces Khan at Madison Square Garden as the next step in his goal to cleaning up at 147lb, just as he did at light-welterweight.
It irks Crawford that some place his Top Rank stable-mate Vasyl Lomachenko ahead of him in the pound-for-pound ratings. “My first goal was to become world champion, and I did that against Ricky Burns at 135,” said the slick switchhitter. “Once I conquered that, I set myself another goal and another goal.
“Next I want to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world, then No.1 pound-forpound in the world. I think I should be No.1 in those rankings, not No.2.”
Crawford, 31, is proud to be an inspiration for youngsters and, while he has changed from the wild youngster who was shot, he has still remained humble.
He is from the city that produced the Superfortresses Enola Gay and Bockscar, which dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
“Of course, a lot of people back home are happy I’ve been successful in the sport of boxing,” said Crawford.
“It’s motivated a lot of young, up-and-coming boxers as well and given them more opportunities to get to the mainstream level earlier in their careers.
“You have to remember where you come from. At the end of the day, when all the fighting stops and when everybody stops shouting your name, you still have to be yourself, and I feel I am.”