Terence Crawford was not impressed with Jermell Charlo’s performance
When super welterweights Jermell “Iron Man” Charlo (34-1-1, 18 KO’s) and Brian Castaño met in the ring, it was to determine the undisputed champion of the division. Charlo held the WBA Super, IBF and WBC straps while Castaño brought his WBO title to the ring. No one could profess to know the future winner but many thought that the two would stage a great fight. In the end, there was no victor but there was a very entertaining fight. Among the viewers, WBO World welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (37-0, 28 KO’s) was not overwhelmed by Charlo’s showing. It’s no secret that Iron Man feels that he should be on the mythical pound for pound list and this is how Crawford chose to dig at him. The day after the somewhat sour undisputed bout, Bud took to his social media to take shots at Charlo.
JUG OF HATERADE
In many ways, this tweet could be trivialized as nothing more than a bit of trolling on Bud’s part. The two men are not in the same division and there have never been any serious negotiations for them to meet in the ring. Going a step further, many will have stones to throw at Crawford simply because he made the post.
In the prizefight that the Nebraskan is clowning, Jermell Charlo was competing to be the undisputed champion of the division. Even better, Castaño was the third consecutive champion that Charlo was fighting. Meanwhile, nearly the entirety of the boxing world has fruitlessly begged for Crawford to face anyone in the division worthwhile. From this standpoint, Bud’s critique is the height of arrogant behavior.
A BIGGER PLAN IN PLAY?
On the other hand, this could be a big development if Crawford is in fact planning a divisional shift. As already mentioned, Crawford has not fought one boxer at welterweight that has pleased the fans. Team Crawford insists that this is because no one will fight the WBO champion. That’s an odd alibi since Shawn Porter, Keith Thurman and Vergil Ortiz won’t stop talking about fighting him! Pushing this glaring contradiction to the side for a moment, if Bud maintains his story then he very well could make an exodus from the division.
If Crawford moved up, then he and Charlo would no longer reside in separate divisions. Once in the same weight class, this becomes a very intriguing match-up that would definitely excite the fans. Also, Bud’s contract with Top Rank is swiftly drawing to a close. It’s a very real possibility that Crawford jumps ship and aligns himself with the PBC. That would make a Charlo fight painfully easy to make, as well with the aforementioned Porter, Thurman and Ortiz dustups.
So let’s see what comes out of this next. Will a potentially high stakes, high skilled showdown transpire or is this only another frivolous episode of Twitter fingers? Regardless of how it plays out, 3kingsboxing will be there to report the news.
By: Bakari Simpson
