Terence Crawford Puts on a Fistic Show in Shutting Up Hank Lundy

NEW YORK, NY -- Their crews went at each other throwing verbal invective, along with a few other things like bottles, hours earlier in the lobby of the same hotel where they were staying. So you just knew Terence Crawford and “Hammerin’” Hank Lundy were going to go at other with induced vigor.

Crawford, the WBO super lightweight champion, wanted to end the loquacious, annoying Lundy’s career. He vowed before their fight Saturday night from the Madison Square Garden Theater that he would shut Lundy’s mouth with his fists.

It’s really not a good idea to anger one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, especially when you’re giving up ample size, reach, power, speed and craft.

But Lundy sometimes deals in a different reality, and for a few moments there, he was dealing quite a bit with Crawford. That’s before “Bud” took over in the fifth round landing heavy, pulverizing shots that felled Lundy once, though referee Steve Willis wasn’t about to see Lundy (26-6-1, 13 KOs) take any more punishment, waving it over at 2:09 of the fifth round.

“Lundy and I have been going back-and-forth on Twitter for about a year,” Crawford said. “I told (Lundy) good fight and I appreciate him taking the fight. Cause I got my respect -- I said he was going to respect me at the end of the fight and he was going to respect me today and I respect him back. He said good fight it’s all love and I appreciate it. There was a lot of personal stuff. I just wanted to shut him up at last.”

Crawford (28-0, 20 KOs) fought almost exclusively southpaw, and the mistake Lundy made was switching to a southpaw stance himself.

Crawford landed 89 of 247 total punches (36%), to Lundy’s 47-211 (22%). The power shots proved to be a major difference. Crawford landed 49-of-84 (58%) power shots to Lundy’s 31 of 85 (36%).

“Lundy did exactly what we thought he was going to do, and that’s wait, and wait, and wait, and then try and catch Bud with the right hand,” said Brian McIntyre, Crawford’s trainer. “After Bud started to get his rhythm, then we caught him. Where Lundy messed up was when he switched to southpaw. He wasn’t doing too badly when he was fighting orthodoxed. Going to southpaw, that’s when he messed up. I told Bud in the corner that the fight would be easier because he would be able to push Lundy more with his jab over Lundy’s shoulder.

“I think Bud showed me that he’s getting meaner, because he used to be, ‘Oh, okay, as long as we win the fight, we’ll be okay.’ That’s not the way he was tonight. Bud stayed focused. Lundy was the one who lost focused, lunging in and got wild, and got caught.”

Afterward, Lundy was complimentary of Crawford, but with some restraint.

“We thought we could box him and we saw some flaws,” Lundy said. “At least, I felt that they should have let it go on a little longer. They saw that I was getting to him a little, too. It’s boxing. I’m a warrior. I don’t think it should have been stopped. I’m a Philadelphia guy. You have to knock me out. I put on a good show. I came to fight. Most of these guys curl up. I was still aware of things. I was aware of everything when the fight was stopped. I’m not a punk in here. I’m going to keep it real. He could crack. But I’ve been hit harder. I just don’t think that they should have stopped it.”

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.