Top Rank interested in Crawford vs. Granados for May 20

boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams: Top Rank reportedly are working on putting together a fight between their fighter WBC /WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford and the recently beaten Adrian Granados for May 20 at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. This is a fight would be televised on HBO World Championship Boxing if it gets made. Felix Diaz had been in play for a fight against Crawford until recently. The rumors are that Diaz wanted too much money for the Crawford fight.

“Been told Top Rank boxing going hard after EL Tigre AG [Adrian Granados] to fight Bud Crawford in May rather than Felix Diaz. #boxing,,” said Dan Rafael on his social media site.

If this is the best that Top Rank can do in selecting a fighter that was just beaten in Granados for Crawford to fight, then that’s pretty sad. Top Rank should be raising the bar for Crawford by selecting guys that are coming off of wins rather than losses.

Granados is a good fighter, but when you lose a fight, it looks strange if you’re title shot off the back of a loss. That looks like desperation. Can’t Top Rank find someone else for Crawford to fight?

Granados gave Broner some problems with his high volume punch attack last Saturday, but he still lost the fight. If Crawford fights Granados, I can already predict what kind of fight it’ll be. Crawford will likely run around the ring and box rather than stand and trade. I don’t see it being an interesting fight. Crawford’s last fight against John Molina Jr. was about as interesting as watching paint dry for the first 7 rounds.

It didn’t get interesting until Crawford hit Molina with a few body shots in the 8th and stopped him. This was the same Molina that Broner turned into a punching bag in defeating him by a 12 round unanimous decision in 2015. Broner stood in the pocket and beat Molina. He didn’t run around the ring like Crawford.

Just why Top Rank wants to match Crawford against Granados is the big question. Granados just lost to former four time division world champion Adrian Broner last Saturday night by a 12 round split decision. Top Rank should be aiming a little higher than picking fighters that are coming off of losses for Crawford to fight.

It’s not as if Crawford has been fighting a lot of winners lately. Crawford’s last fight was against John Molina Jr. last December. Molina came into the Crawford match having lost 3 out of his last 5 fights. Not long before that, Crawford fought Hank Lundy, who had lost 2 out of his last 3 fights. It makes you wonder whether there’s a prerequisite for a fighter to be struggling with their careers before they can get a fight against Crawford.

If the idea is to increase Crawford’s popularity in the boxing world, then Top Rank should be looking to match him against fighters that are highly ranked and WINNING.