If raw talent and skill were all it took to bring true stardom to a fighter, WBC/WBO junior welterweight champ Terence Crawford would already be a superstar.
The Omaha, Nebraska native has established himself as one of the two best fighters in the world and no lower than no. 3 on any reasonably informed pound-for-pound list (for whatever those lists are worth).
But boxing stardom is not exactly a meritocracy. Actual skill seems to play an increasingly small role in who the sport’s powerbrokers decide to push to the masses these days. And with most premium cable TV ratings hovering around the same numbers, even actual TV drawing power seems to not have that much of an influence on who gets the “star” designation.
Whatever criteria is used to make media lap dogs and gullible fans acknowledge a boxer as a true star, though, it’s clear that Crawford is not being welcomed into that exclusive club.
While media gushes over guys like Vasyl Lomachenko and Gennady Golovkin, posting article after article about their growing stardom and endlessly reinforcing the narrative that they ARE entertaining and utterly awesome, Crawford gets little of that.
He gets some acknowledgment of his ability (who could deny that?), but none of the push other guys receive. His resume is attacked from time to time because it IS somewhat flimsy for a fighter of his ability. But the same critics who point at Crawford’s resume as an obstacle to full career credit tend to be those who laud other fighters despite similarly weak resumes.
The apparent glass ceiling for Crawford is frustrating for those who correctly acknowledge the fact that he is, quite literally, everything American fight fans have been begging for from an elite-level fighter since Sugar Ray Leonard. He is skilled in the classic American fighter sense, but he’s also an aggressive fighter with a finely-tuned killer instinct.
Especially frustrating is the fact that if fans and media could do for him what they’ve been doing for Golovkin and Lomachenko, there might be some more boxing peer pressure (and money) in Crawford landing the fights he needs to maybe get to that next level of stardom.
Right now, without any real pressure or money in taking a challenge like Crawford, why would guys like Manny Pacquiao or Al Haymon, with his league of welterweight talent, be willing to take on a guy likely to step on them en route to bigger things? In a lot of ways, Crawford’s real dilemma is a lot like the one aggressively painted by the media for Golovkin over the years—He’s too good and too risky to land the big opposition he needs.
But unlike Golovkin, nobody is cutting Crawford any slack or laying down a “he can only fight those who want to fight him” narrative. He’s not “feared.” He’s just being judged by the record on paper—which would be fair enough if this was done across the board.
So, assuming Crawford is NOT going to get the media love reserved for only certain fighters, how can he get to where he needs to be?
An upcoming title unification bout with IBF/WBA junior welterweight champ Julius Indongo could get him some added recognition as the first 4-belt champ since Jermain Taylor, but, realistically, it won’t get his name out there beyond the already-aware boxing fan.
It would seem that the only way Crawford can become as big as he should be is by piggybacking on the fame of bigger, better known fighters. But, again, that takes him back to his current dilemma. Why would anyone fight him if they weren’t forced to face him and/or guaranteed a truckload of money for doing so?
Maybe the most that can be hoped for is a mass public and media epiphany when it comes to Crawford while he keeps doing his thing against the best available opposition.
Admittedly, this isn’t much of a plan, but what other options are out there? Where does one go when someone has done everything expected of him—actually rising ABOVE expectations—yet there’s still a barrier to next level success?
As for the question posed at the top of this article. Well, the answer is probably “no.” Terence Crawford CAN’T become a superstar, at least not in this current boxing atmosphere. And that’s a damn shame.