Home Boxing News Terence Crawford‘s Star Performance against Gamboa

Terence Crawford‘s Star Performance against Gamboa

On the final hour of Saturday June 28th, 2014, Terence Crawford proved his value to a plethora of people.  In thrashing the game and skilled Yuriokis Gamboa, the Omaha Nebraska star has reached a peak in boxing that most pugilists never even get to sniff.

The 12 round battle, started off anything but celebratory for the 26 year old Crawford, as Gamboa was winning rounds by beating him to the punch and getting through a very high guard.

Gamboa was proving his Olympic worth and showing virtually none of the ring rust that boxing observers were pointing to a plenty as one of the factors going into this battle of undefeated fighters.  

Crawford, while losing rounds, at no point lost his cool in the early stanza of this fight, however. Unlike in the amateurs, professional boxing has an emphasis on power punches.  While he was scoring, Gamboa was not hurting Crawford at any point in the first four rounds of the fight.

Crawford was investing in the second half of this fight while giving away the first several rounds of this fight. The common fighter would lose his cool while stinking out the joint in front of 10,000 plus ballistic hometown fans. Crawford, on the other hand, proved he was anything but common.

The cool customer was setting Gamboa up, figuring him out and salivating at the prospect of finding what has been labeled a very questionable chin, behind an anemic defense showcased by Gamboa.

With Gamboa’s hands hanging very low from the start, his chin was a welcomed and easy target and Crawford was too good not to recognize this, and capitalize of this deficiency.

Once Crawford turned southpaw, a strategy he has used with great results in the past, the fight was all his.

Right hooks were making their home on Gamboa’s beard in thrashing, clubbing style. While Gamboa remained game, a slugfest was the worst choice for him to engage in and the battle resembled that of a bazooka going up against a pellet gun.

The fight was sensational and everyone who has any interest in Crawford was smiling like a young school boy who has Rihanna for instruction. Crawford is now a prince as he is a bankable star for HBO, his hometown of Omaha Nebraska , and just about everywhere else.

With any performance there will always be critics. Some will say Crawford just took advantage of a much smaller fighter who handed his chin to him on a platter.

These remarks are not unjust, Gamboa was very easy to hit and Crawford did look twice his size from the opening bell, however, if you peel the onion to its core you will realize that this was a special win for Crawford.

Crawford was not going to win, or at least impress, unless he was going to stop Gamboa. This was not going to happen unless Crawford was going to lure Gamboa into a slugfest. This slugfest might not have happened if Crawford was not smart enough to switch to the southpaw stance and good enough to stay a southpaw for the majority of the fight.

For whatever reason Crawford was not as good in the orthodox stance and Gamboa was much more comfortable and effective when he was not looking at Crawford from “the wrong side”. Not every fighter would have been able to accomplish this against a very accomplished fighter like Yuriorkis Gamboa.

Had Crawford stayed as a righty, he might have won a dull or even gift decision, and nobody would have been clamoring for more from Terence Crawford. We have enough W12 performances in our boxing lives; it is good to see something more explosive for a change.

More food for thought, Gamboa proved he was willing to go out on a stretcher to defend his undefeated record. A lot of opponents today, would not have been so eager to oblige Gamboa, as Crawford did.   

Terence Crawford is a special fighter and this fight was special. Having said that, you are only as good as your next fight in boxing. We will all be waiting for Crawford’s next with high anticipation.  

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