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FIGHT ODDS

Boxing: Terence Crawford Out to Make Statement Against Hank Lundy

Joseph SantoliquitoFeb 26, 2016

Someone certainly better than Philadelphia’s Hank Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs), the man Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs) will face in a 12-round super lightweight title bout on Saturday at The Theater at Madison Square Garden. It will headline HBO Championship Boxing at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

“This is about staying active, keeping in the mix,” said Crawford, the WBO super lightweight champion. “It’s frustrating, but I know it’s the business of boxing. You have an idea of what you want and who you want to fight, and sometimes things happen and everything doesn’t always work out that way. I have a job to do and that’s fight. I try to keep my head up and keep going forward, because this is not the first time this has been happened to me. When I started my career, I couldn’t get any of the fights that I wanted. I had to wait my time until I fought [Breidis] Prescott [in 2013]. You learn to make due, like I think I am with Lundy.

“[Lundy] does have a big mouth,” he added. “So go ahead, he can push it with me. He doesn’t realize that he’s just motivating me even more. I want to shut him up. I’m as fired up to stick my fist in his mouth as I am to win this fight.”

Crawford, 28, is looking to rekindle the magic he had in 2014, when he beat Ricky Burns for the WBO lightweight belt and then won title defenses against Yuriorkis Gamboa and Raymundo Beltran. Crawford in 2015 followed those victories by beating Thomas Dulorme for the WBO super lightweight title and then defended it against Dierry Jean.

Crawford admits he is not looking past Lundy, who is 1-2 over his last three fights. The win came against Carlos Winston Velasquez, who entered the fight 23-21-1. It does not matter much to Crawford, who says he needs to showcase his skills even more. He has effectively transitioned from southpaw to orthodox in his last few fights, and though some may think of the tactic as a gimmick, “Bud” is quick to correct that the orthodox-southpaw switch is something he has done since he began boxing as an amateur.

“I have that attitude, I think, because I really wasn’t given a lot of opportunities coming up,” Crawford said. “It’s like now when I switch [hands] in the ring, some people look at it like I need to do that to win. I’ve been switching hands since I began to fight, through the amateurs and now as a pro. It amazes when people see it that they think it’s something new. Anyone that’s watched me throughout my career knows I did and still do. Not much has changed since I was an amateur. I’ll still go after you. I still have a mean streak. It’s just being shown on HBO now. I haven’t lost, so why change what I do. It’s been working so far. Right now, my job is to take care of Lundy.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.