“Fighting Words” - When Good Fighters Meet Great Ones

by David P. Greisman

When the Olympics begin in two weeks, the best athletes from nearly 200 countries will compete for the right to be recognized as the greatest in the world. A precious few among them will be honored. The rest will be humbled.

That’s what happens every time any participant in a competitive pursuit steps up to the next level. A star in high school may not be good enough to make the team in college. A college standout may fizzle out in the pros. A runner who was the fastest in local, regional and national races might watch helplessly as the pack outpaces him.

In the 2012 Games, the men’s gold medal long jump was nearly six feet longer than the last-place finisher; the winners of the 10k races finished two minutes faster than the last across the line; and the best shot put throw went nearly 16 feet farther than the worst qualifying one.

When the best meet the best in boxing, the one-on-one combat can resemble the split-second finishes atop the standings — or it can show the wide gap between someone who is merely one of the best in his division for the moment stepping in against someone who is one of the best in the entire sport.

Terence Crawford’s fight with Viktor Postol was supposed to be the most difficult yet of Crawford’s career, putting the top two junior welterweights in the world against each other. But Crawford’s best opponent so far could only do so little. Postol could do no better than others did. He did worse than a few.

That wasn’t his fault. A distance runner could have the best race of his life and still stand no chance of catching up. Postol didn’t appear to have the right plan in place to beat Crawford, but even if he did he seemed to lack what it took to make his adjustments make a difference.

He was one of the two best junior welterweights in the world. There was just too big a difference between No. 1 and No. 2.

Postol deserved to be one of the two. It happened to take some time for him to get there.

After the departure of 140-pound champion Danny Garcia last year for the 147-pound division, the next best fighter in the weight class was someone Garcia narrowly beat the last time No. 1 and No. 2 fought each other, Lucas Matthysse. Postol had been the mandatory challenger to one of Garcia’s world titles, though he’d not done much to earn that designation beyond scoring a highlight-reel knockout of a fringe contender named Selcuk Aydin. Of course, Postol also hadn’t been given much of a chance to do more beyond that. Garcia paid him step-aside money and fought someone else. Then Garcia left the division, vacating the title.

Postol instead fought Matthysse last October. He boxed at first to stay away from Matthysse’s power. He remained standing when Matthysse did land. His volume and movement began to trouble Matthysse. And then Postol scored with a shot that hurt Matthysse so badly that he went down and remained on one knee as the referee counted to 10.

Crawford didn’t have any victories on the same level of magnitude as what Postol had done to Matthysse. But he had compiled three years of performances in two divisions that demonstrated considerable talent and intelligence, vaulting him onto lists of the best boxers in the world.

He’d seized an opportunity in early 2013, stepping in as a late replacement opponent to face Breidis Prescott, winning a decision and so impressing HBO that he returned to the network again and again. That year brought wins over Alejandro Sanabria and Andrey Klimov, though the boos that rained down as he boxed to victory against Klimov sent a message that he needed to impress again.

So Crawford began 2014 by traveling to Scotland to take on Ricky Burns, winning his first world title overseas. Then he came back and thrilled in a battle with Yuriorkis Gamboa, who while undersized still had enough speed and power to draw Crawford into a fun fight. Crawford responded with four knockdowns and a technical knockout. After one more win at lightweight, Crawford moved to the 140-pound division.

First he won a vacant world title last year, stopping Thomas Dulorme. Then he defended with another technical knockout, this one over Dierry Jean. Earlier this year, Henry Lundy landed early before he, too, succumbed to Crawford’s speed and power.

Crawford’s opposition was the product of what little was available. Lightweight has been a shallow division for years. Junior welterweight was limited by the lack of a working relationship between Top Rank, which promotes Crawford, and Al Haymon, who manages a massive number of boxers. Even now that Top Rank and Haymon have settled their dispute, plenty of fighters have over the years moved up from 140 to 147.

Postol was available, however. He, too, was in Top Rank’s stable. He, too, had a world title.

“He’s been avoided for a reason,” Crawford told reporters days before the fight.

“I duck no one,” Crawford said at another media gathering. “I’m the best in the division and he feels he’s the best in the division, so why not see who the best in the division is?”

For a few rounds on Saturday night, Postol may still have felt the best in the division would be him. He may have believed that he was able to keep pace with Crawford, that even though he wasn’t having great success then, he would be able to do even better later. But what little success he was having was because Crawford allowed it. Soon Postol was doing much less. That’s because Crawford was capable of so much more.

“[I was] just checking out his body language,” Crawford said afterward. “Seeing what he like to do and don’t like to do.”

Some fighters have no choice but to start slow, warming up as the fight gets going. For Crawford, however, the slower pace at the outset is a strategic decision. Crawford wants to get his bearings on when his opponent will move and how, on when he’ll throw and what he’ll throw. Crawford wants to gauge hand and foot speed.

“I had him figured out from Round 3,” Crawford said.

Crawford used lateral movement, moving in one direction and then in another, making Postol reset. He made Postol lead, but Postol often still couldn’t throw. On occasion, Crawford would burst forward himself to send Postol in retreat, to keep him aware, to make him wary.

“I wanted him to throw his right hand, but he wouldn’t throw it,” Crawford said. “I was going to counter his right hand. I already took the jab away from him in the southpaw stance. I was just waiting.”

Then the fourth round began, and Crawford knew his feet were too fast for Postol to catch him, and that his hands were too fast for Postol to avoid them. He began to move at a faster pace and land more power shots, all of which forced Postol to simultaneously want to get back at Crawford while also being frustrated that he couldn’t.

And so Postol stood eagerly at the center of the ring at the beginning in the fifth, just as he did before the bell to start the rounds that came before. Crawford walked forward from his corner and Postol did the same, hoping to gain some ground and heading right into a trap, a right hook that hit high on Postol’s head and sent him teetering to his right side, where he fell to one knee.

It was a flash knockdown, but it was the first time Postol had ever been down. He needed to make up for that moment if he was to win the round, take over the momentum, take control of the action. Instead, he continued his pursuit and did what Crawford had been trying to goad him into. He threw a right hand as Crawford backed toward a corner, only to be countered with a hard left cross.

The punch hurt Postol, who skittered across the ring to try to get away from Crawford. His legs weren’t wholly under him, though, and so he bent forward, glove to the canvas, another official knockdown.

The fight was getting away from him. He rarely had a target to hit. He barely hit that target on those rare occasions when he threw. In the sixth, Postol threw only 11 punches, landing only three. That’s fewer than four punches thrown per minute, only one shot hitting its target every 60 seconds. Even worse: He threw only three power punches in the entire round, one a minute. He landed just one of them.

“You’re following him too much,” said Postol’s trainer, Freddie Roach, after the sixth round. “We need to cut him off more. You have to set traps and catch him in the corner.”

Postol wasn’t comfortable enough to do this. Nor was he capable of it. When the best face the best, some will be honored as the greatest while the others will be humbled in their presence. Postol hadn’t faced anyone of Crawford’s level before.

No matter Roach’s advice, knowing what to do didn’t mean that Postol could make it happen.

Trainers can make a difference in camp and on fight night. Their success rate is subject to who their fighters are and whom their fighters are facing. Roach is a Hall of Fame trainer who has worked with many of the best and improved many more with whom he’s worked. Crawford’s trainers are famously unheralded: Brian McIntyre, a retired heavyweight who lost twice as many as he won at 7-14, and Esau Dieguez, a retired bantamweight who was just 1-6.

Some fighters just don’t have the physical gifts. They may not be as fast. They might not have much of a chin. They might not have a good trainer, manager or promoter. But that doesn’t mean they don’t know how to box. McIntyre and Dieguez have been blessed with a gifted fighter, but it is their work with him that has refined Crawford’s gifts. They are extra sets of eyes that can watch what Crawford does in the gym and what his opponents do in the ring. They can strategize alongside Crawford, who trusts them to look out for him. They are a team. Crawford is the one throwing the punches, but they are his right- and left-hand men.

Crawford and his coaches had the game plan. Crawford had the ability to carry it out. Postol was held to just 83 punches landed out of 244 thrown, meaning he landed just seven punches and threw a meager 20 per round. That included 28 of 107 with jabs and just 55 landed power punches out of 137 thrown, a good connect rate of 40 percent but a paltry output. He threw fewer than 12 power punches every three minutes, or about four per minute, one every 15 seconds. He landed with power less than five times per round, once every 36 seconds.

“Everybody was talking about Viktor’s jab and how tall he is and what he was going to do,” Crawford said afterward. “But what happened?”

Crawford happened. He negated Postol so effectively that he didn’t need to do much more on offense in order to win. Crawford threw only 388 punches, about 32 per round, landing 141, about 12 per round. He was 107 of 216 with power shots, a good connect rate, about nine landed power punches for every 18 thrown. Crawford defused Postol without destroying him.

“I didn’t do nothing I didn’t have to do,” Crawford said. “I could’ve pressed on the gas, but why? He was frustrated, couldn’t do nothing with my movement.”

It was enough to win. It was enough to win over some fans as well, but not all. However fascinating it can be to watch a great boxer like Crawford easily negate a good opponent like Postol, it wasn’t overly entertaining action.

How we describe a fight can depend on how we view a fighter. Crawford’s statistics paralleled some performances that have been praised and others that were reviled.

- Crawford vs. Postol: 141 of 388 in total, 107 of 216 with power

- Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Nonito Donaire: 129 of 396 in total, 73 of 176 with power

- Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao: 148 of 435 in total, 81 of 168 with power

- Bernard Hopkins’ rematch vs. Jean Pascal: 131 of 409 in total, 80 of 235 with power

Crawford out-landed all of them in power shots, though those statistics don’t bear out to too much of a per-round difference. Statistics also don’t tell the story of what happened in each round of a fight. But the other important thing is that Crawford has been in entertaining fights before and likely will be in entertaining fights again.

Rigondeaux often settles for winning with the minimum, knowing his foes won’t be able to catch him. That Mayweather was so gifted made it all the more frustrating that he didn’t merely take them out of their comfort zone, but take them out before the final bell. Hopkins was graded on a curve, admired for what he could do at his advanced age against younger, capable titleholders and contenders.

Crawford didn’t take Postol out, but it wasn’t a photo-finish race either. It was Crawford beating the best available junior welterweight opponent with ease, though without showing everything he’s capable of.

It was a great fighter against a good one. It’ll be even greater to see just how great Crawford can be.

“Fighting Words” appears every Monday on BoxingScene.com. Pick up a copy of David’s book, “Fighting Words: The Heart and Heartbreak of Boxing,” at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsamazon or internationally at http://bit.ly/fightingwordsworldwide. Send questions/comments via email at fightingwords1@gmail.com