Those who paid 70 bucks to see the Terence Crawford vs. Amir Khan PPV on Saturday night had to be feeling a sharp pain in the nut sack by the time they turned off their TVs. And, no, they weren’t feeling sympathy pangs from the low blow Crawford landed on Khan in the sixth round that led to the anticlimactic end of their Madison Square Garden contest.
That pain they were feeling in the groinal area was the pain one feels when acting against one’s better judgment and indulging in an impulse buy on fight night.
Realistically, the best one could’ve hoped for from Crawford-Khan was a virtuoso performance from Crawford in defense of his WBO welterweight title. It wasn’t like Khan would suddenly end years of underachievement and finally put it all together for a sport-rattling upset. Stranger things HAVE happened in boxing, but not many stranger than Khan, either in victory or defeat, producing a satisfying ending to a fight of his. It’s been years since fans could walk away from a Khan fight without feeling bamboozled, disappointed, and/or utterly frustrated.
The most likely result from Saturday’s bout, however, was the one that the fans ended up getting—a muddled, anticlimactic mess that began with Crawford kicking Khan’s ass around the ring, hurting him and dropping him in the first round, and finished with a gigantic “WTF.”
And, although it showcased some of Crawford’s next-level skill and talent, the fight primarily showcased Khan’s uncanny ability to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth with a less-than-satisfying finish after months of “this time, I can do it” build-up. The UK’s former two-division world champ didn’t disappoint in disappointing this time out with a technical knockout loss after indicating to trainer Virgil Hunter that Crawford’s sixth-round low blow left him unable to continue.
Some think Khan was angling for a DQ win by opting not to go on. Some think he was just looking for a quick, easy way out of a sound pummeling. Few, however, seem to be taking Khan—who was also claiming a sudden hand injury as he started falling hopelessly behind-- at his word that the crotch shot was fully disabling.
"It hurts boxing. This is not good for boxing, this is not good for ESPN and this is not good for their debut pay-per-view [with Top Rank]," trainer and somewhat out of favor ESPN analyst Teddy Atlas said of Crawford-Khan and its dubious conclusion.
To add a streak of blood to this particular Khan stool sample, fans also got a “We want Errol Spence” finale to the evening, complete with a finger-pointing rant from Bob Arum against Al Haymon, who he says is the only reason Crawford-Spence can’t be made, and eye-rolling “Yeah, Bob’s right” ESPN home team cheerleading from Max Kellerman to end the telecast.
All in all, it was a predictably frustrating evening, fulfilling the doomed destiny of a bout that generated nothing but bad boxing karma as a cynical PPV cash grab with a laughably obscene $70 price tag.
Quick (S)hits:
-- Danny Garcia looked sharp, strong, and, most importantly, deadly serious in walking through the usually tough and durable Adrian Granados Saturday night in the main event of a PBC on Fox card. The seventh-round TKO serves notice to the rest of the welterweight division that Garcia—despite having an almost Amir Khan-like ability to frustrate with questionable and/or uneven efforts—may be in the right frame of mind to once again fight up to the level of his raw abilities. Even at his worst, though, Garcia is a skilled and dangerous presence. At his best? He could work his way right back up to top 3 in the world, behind only Errol Spence and Terence Crawford.
-- How awesome would it be if all the elite-level welterweights were in the same place, fighting under the same network banner? We would’ve been seeing Crawford-Garcia last night (and maybe Khan vs. Kell Brook earlier in the day from the UK), not Crawford-Khan and Garcia-Granados. And with Spence-Porter to look forward to, alongside, maybe, possibly, Thurman-Pacquiao? Man…just imagine. This welterweight dream landscape could still happen, but it will require some good faith negotiating from Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum and PBC bossman Al Haymon, who advises everyone else worth fighting at 147. Boxing needs this coming together of wallets, minds, and egos.
-- 21-year-old lightweight top prospect Teofimo Lopez did not disappoint in his co-feature slot on the Crawford-Khan undercard, crushing Edis Tatli in the fifth round with a body shot. Despite the telecast’s fixation on creating a Lopez-Vasiliy Lomachenko rivalry, don’t expect an actual Lopez-Lomachenko bout to happen any time soon. Remember, we’re talking about two Bob Arum fighters in a Bob Arum universe. This rivalry will drag on for years, drowning in marinade, only to finally get made when fans are almost to the point of not caring anymore. That is assuming, of course, that neither gets beat before the endless marinade process is complete.
-- Andy Ruiz is a fine heavyweight—and he proved it on the Garcia-Granados undercard by dismantling Alexander Dimitrenko. But, I can’t help but think of the late Chris Farley character who “lived in a van down by the river” whenever I see Ruiz shirtless. Physical aesthetics should not play a role in how seriously a fighter is taken or how well he can be promoted, but they do.
Got something for Magno? Send it here: paulmagno@theboxingtribune.com