Eleven months after he most recently stepped into the ring, ESPN's No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter, Terence Crawford, returns to action Saturday when he puts his welterweight world title on the line against Kell Brook.
It isn't the title unification bout against Errol Spence Jr. or Manny Pacquiao that Crawford has been chasing since he won the WBO belt in June 2018, but Brook presents an intriguing challenge. Brook won the first 36 fights of his pro career, including a welterweight world title victory over Shawn Porter, and then made three successful defenses.
A step up to middleweight to challenge Gennadiy Golovkin for his three world titles resulted in a fifth-round TKO and a fractured right eye socket. Then Brook put his welterweight belt on the line against Spence and suffered a broken left orbital bone in an 11th-round knockout loss.
But after three wins, with a long break wedged in between, Brook looks to open some eyes this weekend against one of the best fighters in the world.
What does Crawford stand to gain from this fight? ESPN commentator and two-division world champion Timothy Bradley Jr. weighs in on the status of Crawford's career, his greatest strengths inside of the ring, where he could go from here and the type of challenge Brook presents for the champ.
Pound-for-pound No. 1
I don't think Terence Crawford is arguably the best fighter in the world. I think he is the best fighter in the world. Let me tell you why.
From the time he started winning world titles, he has been doing it impressively. He went over to the U.K., beat a hot fighter in Ricky Burns in his home country of Scotland to win his first lightweight belt and then kept rolling through everyone put in front of him. Crawford is the first 140-pounder in boxing to claim all four belts since it became a four-belt era.
Then Crawford faced Jeff Horn to win the welterweight world title he has now, and that was his first fight at that weight. Whatever people want to say about Horn and his fight against Manny Pacquiao -- a lot of people think Pacquiao won -- Horn got the edge in the end. Either way, it was a close fight. Then Crawford went in there and made it look easy, knocking Horn out in nine rounds.
Crawford also knocked out Jose Benavidez Jr. and knocked out Amir Khan in six rounds, even if it was Khan slightly watered down from his peak.
Then Crawford came back and fought Egidijus Kavaliauskas, who is a really good fighter with a great amateur pedigree and punching power. Kavaliauskas hit Crawford more than any other opponent Crawford has faced. But Crawford finished Kavaliauskas, too.
What Crawford does best
Crawford is multidimensional. He can fight you from the southpaw stance. He can fight you from an orthodox stance. He has power in both hands. He can box. He can come and get you. He showed in the Kavaliauskas fight that he's a mean son of a gun.
Some fighters like to carry guys in a ring and fight to the level of their competition. That's not Terence Crawford. If you don't belong in the ring with Crawford, he's going to sniff you out, and he's going to knock you out. If you look at his past eight fights, seven of those ended by knockout. There is no one in the sport who possesses the skills Crawford possesses. Not only does he have the abilities that he has, but also his mental toughness and grit to bite down on that mouthpiece to get the job done are incredibly important. He finds a way to win, and he usually does it in spectacular fashion.
The effect of an 11-month layoff and not making a title unification bout
When you start your pro career, you're fighting often, and you're getting better with each fight. Then you win a world title, and that's kind of the middle of your career, when you start making real money, and you are performing at the highest level. Crawford was at the high -- at the very, very, very, very, very top -- the past few years. But as things have slowed down a bit, which happens to each fighter, he's on the edge of sliding into that last third of his career. That also happens to every fighter who fights for world titles, unifies and does big things in the sport.
There was a time when it seemed like Crawford had a lot of momentum going forward. But over the past few years, he has been running out of opponents to face. It has been difficult to find guys who want to get in the ring with Crawford, especially the fighters holding the other belts at his weight. A lot of that is because all of the other big welterweights are with Premier Boxing Champions, and none of those guys, to this point, has been willing to step outside their square to face Crawford. He has been shut out.
Crawford wants to fight the best names out there, but if they don't want to be part of that, he has to settle. He has been going down the list and fighting the best fighters who are willing to square off with him, but not getting those big unification bouts and high-profile fights has hurt his career, and he really has no control over it.
The momentum he was carrying is kind of winding down. Under normal circumstances, I think that Spence fight should've happened this year. There's a possibility that we get it next year. Is it too late? Crawford will be 34 next year. He won't be a young gun. Spence is getting a little bit older, but he is still younger than Crawford. That fight, at this point, feels a little overripe, but I still would like to see it.
What kind of risks does Brook present?
Crawford is fighting a guy in Kell Brook who is relatively dangerous because he can punch and he has experience. Also, I would say he's a bit restored after suffering the first two losses of his career in major fights against Golovkin and Spence. He has had three wins since, and he took off a nice chunk of time to recover. He beat Mark DeLuca. He stopped him and looked great. Now he's challenging Terence Crawford for the title, and he has everything to gain and nothing to lose.
I know many people aren't giving Brook a chance, but he's dangerous. If Crawford is not 100 percent focused, it could be bad for him. Crawford is in a position -- because he has been shut out from other fights -- where he has to look good every single fight or risk losing ground. As tough as that is, especially after being out for 11 months, Crawford is the type of guy who stays in shape year-round, always training.
I think it might be tough in the beginning stages of the fight because Brook has that experience. Brook is a counter-puncher, and we know counter-punchers are patient. They can set things up, give Crawford some trouble in the early stages, because Crawford is typically a slow starter. But as the fight heats up, Crawford figures them out, and then he dissects them and knocks them out.
The only negative that I see for Brook is why did he fire his trainer, Dominic Ingle, to go with Carlos Formento? And why doesn't he have a promoter? I don't get it. It almost seems like it's just about trying to keep all the money in his pocket, whatever it's worth. You have a longtime trainer who has been by your side, who has supported you, who has groomed you and helped you win a world title, and then you just put him to the side? Brook is coming here by himself, and as a lone man, he has a tall, tall mountain to climb to fight Crawford.
If Crawford takes care of business, can he finally make a major fight happen?
Some of the fights that have been rumored -- a guy such as Shawn Porter, he doesn't hold a belt. He's a good welterweight, but he doesn't hold a belt.
Looking at the state of the division, Spence owns a couple of those belts, but he's trying to bounce back from a car accident and trying to get his feet back wet. He's facing Danny Garcia, who is not a belt holder, but it's a really good tune-up fight for him. Manny Pacquiao obviously owns a belt at welterweight, and Manny won't step foot in a ring with Crawford. He had the opportunity when they were both at Top Rank, and it never happened.
It has been all bad for Crawford. As far as the Brook fight, I don't think Crawford, even if he knocks Brook out, will get the credit that he deserves.
Is Crawford being underestimated in the boxing world?
He's in a peculiar place. A lot of people are not giving him credit because they say he isn't facing the best welterweights out there, but the other welterweights kind of shut him out. Not a lot of guys are willing to step in there and face Crawford. He should be in a position to fight for two championships. He should be fighting for multiple belts. That's what it's all about. He's a belt collector. He loves the way they look in his house on the shelf.
Spence beat Brook, the guy Crawford is fighting, and he got credit for beating a good pound-for-pound fighter, but it seems like we're at a point where every move Crawford makes is the wrong move, no matter what he does. I guess that comes with the territory of being No. 1. No one's ever fully satisfied.
Either way, people will compare the performances of Spence and Crawford against Brook, who -- and this is kind of wild -- will be the first common opponent in their professional careers. But I think it'll skew against Crawford. If he breezes through Brook, he was old and washed up. If Crawford struggles, he sucks.
At the end of the day, I think it's going to boil down to Crawford's performance. If he blows through Brook, you have to give him his due. If he struggles with Brook, people are going to be talking. He needs to look spectacular against a solid, dangerous veteran and then move on to the next one.
Prediction
Crawford ends the fight in the early to middle rounds. It's going to be difficult in the beginning because of the timing and the rhythm, the way Brook fights. Then Crawford will heat up around the fourth, fifth, sixth round, and I believe he'll get the stoppage in the eighth round. He's going to realize that Brook can't take the pressure, and he's going to go in the trenches and break Brook down.