Terence Crawford’s Unusual Success Story
Within the sport of boxing, it’s a well-known fact that achieving world champion status or life altering paydays is no small feat. The greater majority of those who slip on the gloves will never know the joys of either reality. This is why champions and other elite fighters are so hardily celebrated.
However, in some cases there are instances were fighters have to contend with circumstances outside of the typical. In many ways, WBO world welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (36-0, 27 KO’s) is the perfect example of a boxer with such an abnormal background.
FAMILY AFFAIR
During a recent exclusive interview with Lion Killa LC, one of Crawford’s trio of coaches, Red Spikes, detailed how much of an anomaly that Bud really is. Firstly, it’s truly amazing that Crawford has achieved the lofty heights of success that he has coming from Omaha, Nebraska. This is an impress feat because Nebraska has virtually no notable boxing history to speak of.
Crawford is a trailblazer for his region. Also, Bud is very unique in his utilization of three main coaches. Technically, Brian “Bomac” McIntyre is the official chief second. However, Crawford has always been trained by McIntyre, Spikes and Esaú “Tuto” Diéguez. Despite the unusual structure of this unit, the quartet of men have enjoyed grand success in the professional ranks.
“It’s because we came up together, Esaú and Bomac were my coaches coming up. So it was a natural transition. It’s never been an ego problem because we never had shit in Nebraska. We never had champions. We never had a bunch of national champions every year and a bunch of people being looked at for next prospects and shit like that.”
“…but it’s the whole outlook of being in Nebraska boxing and our goal was to get a world champion and now we have two. So it’s like we just push goals and it’s never really been about money. It was always to get Bud to where he needed to be. We can’t let him go by the wayside and be another, ‘oh man, if Bud would have kept boxing man he’d be a world champion right now!’ That’s what we would have been saying if we didn’t get our heads together and everything together.”
“…so luckily God has guided us and put the right things in our heart and minds to keep this shit rolling. And we are all family and we all been together twenty plus years. So that’s why we don’t have problems and egos and shit, because we sit down and talk about it…I don’t think I could work with anyone else.” ~ Red Spikes, Terence Crawford, assistance coach
Ideally for Team Crawford, and the greater boxing community at large, Bud will continue his trail blazing ways and provide us with many more tremendous memories.
By: Bakari Simpson
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