TC at MSG

Terence Crawford, Ring’s No. 2 pound-for-pound fighter, returns to the ring to face Amir Khan, as they headline the card on ESPN PPV.

Title Fight Info
12 rounds, Welterweight (147 lbs)
WBO Welterweight
Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
Apr 12, 2019, 6:00 pm
ESPN PPV & BT Sport Box Office

Tale of the Tape

Fight Preview

Crawford has been a champ at lightweight , he unified, and later became the undisputed champ holding all the belts at junior welterweight, before moving up to welterweight and winning the WBO strap against Jeff Horn.  Since winning the belt in his first fight at welterweight, Crawford successfully defended his WBO welterweight strap for the first time against Jose Benavidez Jr via TKO in the 12^th round. On Saturday he will be defending his belt for the second time against what may be the most impressive name on his resume to date in Amir Khan. 

Amir Khan definitely has an impressive resume, but in recent years Khan is mostly known for his suspect chin, and losses against the top competition. He is 7-3 in his last 10 fights, all three losses were world title fights, and two of the losses came by devastating KOs.

Now let’s get back to the impressive resume. Khan won a Silver medal in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, he also is a former junior welterweight champ, who was able to unify against Zab Juda, giving Khan two belts at junior welterweight. Amir Khan isn’t just an impressive name Crawford can look to add to his list of victims, Khan brings skills to the ring.  He has fast hands and throws a lot of combinations, he isn’t scared to go for 3,4, or even 5 punch combinations at times. Those are some of the positives Amir Khan brings to the table, but the fact that he throws high punch combos puts Khan in danger to get knocked out.

Final Words

Now that I have gone over what both fighters have done up until this point, let me get into what I think will happen on Saturday night.  I mentioned Khan’s skills, but I didn’t go over what Terence Crawford brings to the ring.  Terence is a well rounded fighter, he can do it all inside the ring.  He can out box his opponents, he can fight inside, he can trade blows and be the fighter landing the more accurate punches. Not to mention he is just as comfortable fighting Orthodox, as he is fighting Southpaw. I believe “Bud’s” skills are going to be too much for Khan.  I can see Khan getting off to a nice start, maybe even winning the first round or two, but it won’t be long before Crawford figures Khan out. Crawford will start landing the more accurate punches not too long into the fight, and will eventually get to that chin. 

Prediction: Terence “Bud” Crawford wins via TKO, no later than round 10.

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Full Fight Schedule

Saturday, April 12th

ESPN PPV & BT Sport

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
6:00 PM PST

UNDER CARDS
#8 Teofimo Lopez 🇺🇸 (12-,10 KO) vs Edis Tatli 🇫🇮 (31-2, 10 KO)
10 rounds – Lightweight

Felix Verdejo PR (24-1, 16 KO) vs Bryan Vasquez 🇨🇷 (37-3, 20 KO)
10 rounds – Lightweight

Shakur Stevenson 🇺🇸 (10-0, 6 KO) vs Christopher Diaz PR (24-1, 16 KO)
10 rounds – Featherweight

MAIN EVENT
Terence Crawford USA (34-0, 25 KO) vs Amir Khan UK (33-4, 20 KO)
12 rounds – Welterweight (Title Fight)

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FOX & ITV 4

Dignity Health Sports Park, Carson, CA 
5:00 PM PST

UNDER CARDS
Andy Ruiz Jr 🇺🇸 (31-1, 20 KO) vs Alexander Dimitrenko 🇩🇪 (41-4, 26 KO)
10 rounds – Heavyweight

Brandon Figueroa 🇺🇸 (18-0, 13 KO) vs Yonfrez Parejo 🇻🇪 (22-3-1, 11 KO)
10 rounds – Junior Featherweights

Ricardo Franco 🇲🇽 (23-2, 20 KO) vs Johnreil Casimero 🇵🇭 (26-4, 17 KO)
10 rounds – Bantamweight

MAIN EVENT
#6 Danny Garcia 🇺🇸 (34-2, 20 KO) vs Adrian Granados 🇲🇽/🇺🇸 (20-6-2, 14 KO)
12 rounds – Welterweight

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DAZN & Sky Sports

O2 Orena, London, UK
11:00 PM PST / 7:00 PM BST

UNDER CARDS
Josh Kelly 🇬🇧 (8-0, 6 KO) vs Przemyslaw Runowski 🇵🇱 (17-0, 3 KO)
10 rounds – Welterweights

Dereck Chisora 🇬🇧 (29-9, 21 KO) vs Senad Gashi 🇩🇪 (17-2, 17 KO)
10 rounds – Heavyweights

Joe Cordina Wales (8-0, 6 KO) vs Andy Townend 🇬🇧 (22-4, 14 KO)
10 rounds – Lightweights

MAIN EVENT
David Allen UK (16-4-2, 13 KO) vs Lucas Browne 🇦🇺 (28-1, 24 KO)
12 rounds – Heavyweights

Note: Any number next to the boxer corresponds with his/her rankings on Ring.com.

Erick Garcia is a podcaster and boxing junkie. He has been covering the boxing since 2016 for the30minutelunchbreak.com. You can view all of his posts and articles, and follow him on Twitter.