Crawford likely to face Jean on Oct. 24

0
1318

Terence Crawford - Dierry JeanTerence Crawford (26-0, 18 KO’s) claimed the vacant WBO-light welterweight title with a sixth-round TKO of Thomas Dulorme in April and according to reports, is looking at returning to the ring in October or November in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

On Monday, we reported via ESPN’s Dan Rafael that it had come down to three candidates. Antonio Orozco (22-0, 15 KO’s), Mauricio Herrera (22-5 7 KO’s), and Cesar Cuenca (48-0, 2 KO’s) were all in the running.

Orozco is slated to fight Humberto Soto, Herrera is going to need time to recover from the cuts he sustained against Hank Lundy, and Cuenca just defeated Ik Yang last Saturday to claim the IBF light-welterweight title.

Now, we have learned through Boxing Scene’s Steve Kim that Crawford is slated to return October 24th in Omaha and the leading candidate has emerged as well – wait for it – and I’m sorry folks, the candidate was not amongst the three names we mentioned in the previous report.

NABF lightweight champion Dierry Jean (29-1, 20 KO’s) is reportedly going to get his second chance at World championship glory. His first shot came up short last year against former champion Lamont Peterson. Following the defeat, Jean returned to 135 lbs., and he’s gone 4-0 with three knockouts since June 2014.

However, the level of competition hasn’t been up to par with that of a Terence Crawford. Jerry Belmontes has lost seven of his last 10 fights, Carlos Reyes was knocked out by Miguel Berchelt prior to his fight with Jean, Daniel Ruiz has never really been a factor, and Mario Perez follows suit.

Don’t take it as if I’m completely discrediting Jean; that’s not my intention, he’s a good boxer. He cuts off the ring well, he can use his jab to set up for a big right hand, and he can land some solid combinations. But like I said, he’s doing this against guys who aren’t top-tier opponents.

Crawford is a slickster. There is a saying in boxing, “You can’t hit what you can’t see,” but the punches that you don’t see coming, are also the ones that hurt the most.

That’s how Crawford got Thomas Dulorme out of there so early. The Puerto Rican tried unloading on Crawford early, but the champion used his tight guard to avoid his shots.

Dulorme decided to come forward a little more. Just when he thought had his man cooked for a big left hand, Crawford used good head movement to avoid the shot and come back with a counter right hand over the top.

Also, those uppercuts to the body were brutal.

Jean took a lot of leather against Mario Perez for example, but he knew he didn’t have to worry because Perez didn’t have the power to capitalize. He was beating up on Perez, and it still took him eight rounds to get out of there.

It’s not crazy to assume that he’s going to fight Crawford with the same gameplan.

Although Jean has never been stopped in his career, I think the chin would crack in this matchup, and we’ll see Terence Crawford walk away with a 10th round KO.