SONAHR: February 29, 2016 – As the second month of 2016 closes out, three rising stars in the fistic firmament had a chance to shine on Saturday. One of those hopefuls came through big-time. The other two didn?t.
The star that shone was WBO junior-welterweight champion Terence Crawford, who defended his title with a fifth-round stoppage of Henry Lundy. Crawford had Lundy down twice in the fateful round. Lundy showed courage in rising after both knockdowns, but was in dire straits when the referee wisely intervened.
Even though Lundy went into the bout as an underdog, he is a respectable fighter ? not quite Top-10 caliber, but not a ?gimme? opponent, either. He is definitely a world-class trash-talker. And he even managed to hold his own with his fists against the champion over the first few rounds of the fight.
Once Crawford figured him out, though, the end was inevitable. With 19 KOs in 27 consecutive victories coming into the battle, Crawford is not an explosive puncher. But he hits hard enough to get the job down, as Lundy found out, much to his pain and chagrin. Lundy protested that the stoppage was premature. No, Henry, it wasn?t. You should be eternally grateful to the ref for saving you from potentially life-altering damage.
In the meantime, a potential 140-lb blockbuster looms between Crawford and undefeated WBC title-holder Viktor Postol. It?s the only junior-welterweight matchup that matters. The other recognizable names in the division ? Lucas Matthysse, Ruslan Provodnikov and Adrien Broner ? are all shopworn, and Crawford would not prove anything by beating them. If the Postol match doesn?t materialize, Crawford may well jump to the wide-open welterweight class by the end of this year.
The stars that fizzled were Carl Frampton and Scott Quigg, who fought each other on Saturday. Frampton was the IBF junior-featherweight champion; Quigg held the IBF title in that division. Both men were undefeated going into the unification bout. Both are British. The contest was held at Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. The match just screamed ?Superfight!?
But that scream turned out to be more of a whisper ? and a faint one at that. After nine rounds of cautious sparring and three of actual fighting, the decision ended up split in Frampton?s favor. So now, Frampton possesses two world title belts. That?s cold comfort, however, considering the wishy-washy performance he and Quigg put on for their fans. The pre-fight publicity featured far more excitement than the actual contest.
Had the fight been furiously contested, a rematch ? likely in the same venue ? would be in order. But who would want to see these two in the same ring again?
There?s only one indispensable fighter in the 122-lb division ? Guillermo Rigondeaux, who holds no alphabet title belts at the moment, having been stripped of the WBO and WBA titles. But he is still recognized as lineal champion by The Ring magazine. Yet for all his mastery of the art, the Cuban is dismissed as a defensive-minded bore ? something of a miniature Floyd Mayweather Jr. Fan demand for a match between Rigondeaux and either Frampton or Quigg would be minimal, at best.
Yet regardless of its outcome, the Frampton-Quigg showdown put together two of the best fighters in their division. And Crawford-Lundy was at least as credible as some of middleweight menace Gennady Golovkin?s recent one-sided encounters.
So far, so good for 2016.
