Terence Crawford Dominates To Score Victory Over Breidis Prescott

0
1664

In the co-main event of the March 30th edition of HBO’s Boxing After Dark series, last-minute replacement and natural lightweight, Terence Crawford (20-0, 15 knockouts) took on hard-hitting veteran, Breidis Prescott (26-5, 20 knockouts) in a junior welterweight match-up. Going into the bout, many saw this as being a potential mismatch considering the gap in experience and the difference in size. Like many expected, the bout did turn into a one-sided affair,  but it didn’t exactly play out the way many had so confidently predicted.

At the sound of the opening bell, Prescott was quick to apply pressure and attempt to muscle around the smaller Crawford. While Crawford did little early aside from keep Prescott at range, Prescott managed to get the best of Crawford in most of their exchanges. Things started to quickly change as soon as round 2 began. Crawford had switched his stance to southpaw which in turn allowed him to find success landing left hooks and a peppering right jab. It’s this kind of constant attack that allowed Crawford to slowly build momentum against the Colmbian, and gradually get more comfortable in the ring. This continued to be the case through the first three rounds, but by round 4 it was becoming obvious that Crawford was the much more complete fighter. Unlike the heavy-handed Prescott, Crawford showed a heavy reliance on boxing technique and movement that began to visibly frustrate his much favored opponent.

This would eventually come to be the story of the fight as Prescott seemed determined to land that one big shot, but thanks to Crawford’s superior head movement and use of a jb, the highly sought after “big shot” never came. Prescott would eventually try changing his plan of attack to one that involved charging Crawford at the sound of the opening bell, but Crawford always managed to weather the early storm and force the fight to continue in the center of the ring.

As Crawford continued getting more comfortable in the ring, his potential “greatness” and natural talent was able to really come through in the final three rounds of the fight. From round seven to round ten, Crawford showed glimpses of adequate power, a solid chin, and a great killer instinct as he looked to put away Prescott in style. Unfortunately for Crawford, Prescott refused to be put away, but the judges scorecards further reinforced just how one-sided the bout was in nature. The judges scored the bout a majority decision in favor of Crawford on scores of (99-91), (97-93), and (100-90).

With as dominant a win as this was, Crawford’s career can only go up from here. Aside from Kellerman’s ridiculous idea of matching up Crawford with Broner, there’s little one can do in the way of arguing Crawford’s chances against some of the lightweight divisions bigger names. As far as Prescott is concerned, this may be the last time HBO has him on a broadcast after suffering another loss. With his experience and one-punch knockout potential, Prescott will always find opposition, but it will be against less recognizable names, for less money, and garnering much less exposure. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see where both fighters’ careers go from this point, but as Crawford proved, all eyes should rightfully be on him.