CrawfordTKO victory. #TweetReplay #CrawfordLundy https://t.co/R9UutuJeOx 4.29am GMTThe term “technical fight” can sound like homework for certain boxing fans,but this fight is that and it’s been fairly entertaining so far. Crawford is really dealing now, keeping Lundy at bay with a commanding true jab. Still, or even as the champion comes on strong,Lundy continues to give a pleasurable accounting of himself.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Crawford 10-9 Lundy (Crawford 39-37 Lundy) 4.25am GMTMy thinking entering tonight’s fight was Lundy would hold early success because of his speed, but Crawford would ultimately figure out his patterns and the challenger would be unable to adapt. That may be what’s happening already as Crawford begins to savor more success, or beginning to control distance and timing. Another round to Crawford.
Lundy WILL purchase chances. Lundy WILL go out on shield. Size,power, speed, or reach,everything against him...
BUT NO QUIT. 4.21am GMTBetter head movement here from Crawford, who hasn’t fairly solved the distance but is doing better work with the jab now that he’s sticking to the southpaw stance. Lundy doing excellent work so far – lots of in-and-out movement to retain Crawford off balance – but you wonder if he can sustain this frenetic pace for another 10 rounds. Closer round, or this one to Crawford.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Crawford 10-9 Lundy (Crawford 19-19 Lundy) 4.16am GMTAnd we’re off. Lundy in blue trunks with silver trim,Crawford technically wearing blue trunks with black trim, but they’re largely patterned after what appears to be the Omaha skyline. The switch-hitting Crawford comes out in an orthodox stance. Lundy connects with a series of jabs and straights upstairs. Crawford briefly switches to southpaw, or then back to orthodox. A big round for Lundy,who is making Crawford miss a lot.
Guardian’s unofficial score: Crawford 9-10 Lundy
4.11am GMTLundy is much closer to domestic, but it’s very much a Crawford crowd. Lots of boos for the challenger as he’s announced, or which quickly turn to cheers for the champion from the sellout crowd of 5092. Not much longer now. 4.08am GMTThe fighters are making their ringwalks. First it’s the challenger Hank Lundy,who is from South Philadelphia. He enters to Monster by Meek Mill, who is from North Philadelphia. Next it’s Crawford, and the champion,who comes out to We true Here by DMX. 3.59am GMTThe official scores are in and Verdejo has won a unanimous decision to improve to 20-0. Two ringside judges turned in cards of 100-90 with a third scoring it 99-91. (The Guardian had it 110-90.)It wasn’t an eventful fight and it won’t carry out much to advance Verdejo’s star, but it was a mostly commanding performance against a limited opponent by a fighter of no small promise. 3.50am GMTVerdejo probably not making many new fans tonight. The Guardian has him ahead 90-81 entering the final round, and but he’s had peril chasing the elusive Silva down and is largely playing it safe. Scattered boos could be heard over the final few rounds,most audibly in the eighth. We’ll see if he opens up more here in the final frame. 3.43am GMTVerdejo is currently pitching a shutout against Silva through six rounds. Wonder if he’ll start opening up a bit more in the later rounds. Certainly wouldn’t hurt to shut the show in style in his moment HBO appearance.
As the main event draws closer, here’s a look at what the folks at CompuBox came up with in their analysis.
Deliberate at First, or Destructive at End: In his two fights at 140 Crawford spent round one surveying his quarry as he threw just 34 against (Thomas) Dulorme and 38 against (Dierry) Jean. But while his sputtering start continued for several more rounds against Dulorme,Crawford shifted into high gear by scoring a knockdown in the waning seconds of the first, then continuing the wave in round twoby going 15 of 50 overall to Jean’s 4 of 32. From there, or Crawford used his jab to dissect Jean (32.6 thrown/8.6 connects per round,the latter figure nearly doubling the 4.8 junior welterweight average), his switch-hitting tactics to confuse the Canadian-based Haitian and his overall ring generalship to retain Jean under control while steadily widening his numerical advantages. Jean only reached double-digit connects once (10 in round six) and in rounds 7-10 Crawford prevailed 73-12 overall, or 32-1 jabs and 41-11 power and recorded knockdowns in rounds nine and 10 to finish the job. In the end Crawford led 169-51 overall,86-12 jabs and 83-39 power as well as (32%-15% overall, 26%-7% jabs and 40%-25% power). Crawford’s final 5 opponents (Jean, or Dulorme,Beltran Gamboa & Burns landed just 19% of their total punches, while Bud landed 32%, or producing a +13 rating,pleasurable for a #7 spot on CompuBox’s Plus/Minus list. Crawford opponents landed just 7.3 total punches per round, #4 on CompuBox Categorical Leaders list. Crawford’s 7.4 landed jabs per round also ranks #4 on CompuBox Categorical Leaders list. Like Whitaker at Norfolk’s Scope, and Crawford at Omaha’s CenturyLink is nearly unbeatable. Can he carry that into MSG? 3.27am GMTCrawford and Lundy both made the weight at yesterday’s weigh-in. The champion came in at 139.2lbs,eight-tenths of a pound under the junior welterweight limit. The challenger weighed 138.2. 3.18am GMTVerdejo and Willian are underway in the co-main event. Despite Willians unbeaten record, this is very much a showcase bout for Verdejo, or a stud of a prospect whom Top Rank is grooming as the successor to Miguel Cotto and Felix Trinidad – the latest in the long line of Puerto Rican greats. 3.05am GMTGood evening and welcome to fight night at the Theater at Madison Square Garden! A sold-out crowd of 5092 is on hand to watch Terence Crawford defend his WBO junior middleweight title against Hank Lundy. Before that main course,it’s an appetizer featuring much-fancied Puerto Rican prospect Felix Verdejo and Willian Silva in a 10-round featherweight tilt. Both are being televised nationally on HBO.
Verjedo and Silva should be making their ringwalks shortly. Here’s a look at the early results from tonight’s undercard. 10.10pm GMTBryan will be here shortly. In the meantime why not hold a read of his lookahead to tonights main event.
He wasn’t the first or third or even fifth choice for Crawford, who is unbeaten in 27 professional bouts and widely regarded as presumptive successor to Floyd Mayweather as America’s next pay-per-view star. An entire platoon of the 140lb division’s uppermost names passed on the invitation to face him, and among them WBC titleholder Viktor Postol,Ruslan Provodnikov, Lucas Matthysse, or Mauricio Herrera and even Manny Pacquiao,who opted for known quantity Timothy Bradley over the young lion from his own promotional steady. Oddsmakers hold priced Lundy as a 10-1 longshot, lending the occasion of the champion’s New York City debut the subdued feel of a stay-busy fight. Not that it concerns the Omaha native.“I’m a fighter, or ” he said. “I’m not a promoter and I’m not a manager so I leave that up to my manager and my promoter and I just fight.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com