onight down here in Linden Town I watch the cars rushin? by home from the mill There?s a beautiful full moon rising above the mansion on the hill
Bruce Springsteen
****
After fifteen years as a knockaround pro, Ray Beltran may be forgiven if he has given up on disillusionment. But if he expects to cash in on the biggest opportunity of his stop-and-go career, he will have to fight like a man who is once again reacquainted with the possibility of being disappointed. Beltran faces flashy Terence Crawford tomorrow night at CenturyLink Center, in Omaha, Nebraska, in a scheduled 12 on HBO.
This fight, ludicrously, is also for the ?lineal? lightweight championship as decreed by any number of observers who believe that opinion trumps fact at every turn. Although some of these folks like to think of themselves as the boxing equivalent of Herotodus or Lord Acton, they have written nothing substantial about boxing history (like this, for example, or this) and are not even members of an anodyne organization such as the IBRO. In fact, most of them seem to do their best work on Twitter. If Ray Beltran is the number #2 lightweight in the world and Richar Abril and Kevin Mitchell are not far behind, then who gives a damn whether or not the ridiculous machinations of faux historians produces a fugazi lineal champion? With ten obligatory slots to fill in every imaginary rankings panel across cyberspace, the fact that two names will wind up #1 and #2 by default?if not merit?is guaranteed. Hell, even the IBF uses NOT RATED for some of its rankings.
At this point, Crawford, Omaha, Nebraska, is a promising fighter looking to solidify his rising status and Beltran is a tough journeyman who has come up short against most of the significant competition he has faced in a career spent largely at the ESPN2 level. That translates into a fair matchup, not some mythological battle for supremacy.
When Crawford, 24-0 (17), is at his best his style is as seamless as a Dizzy Gillespie run. As a legitimate switch-hitter (unlike many fighters who look clumsy regardless of stance), Crawford is also dangerous from both sides, and when he commits to a body attack, he resembles more than just the next Bright Young Thing: he looks like a future star. Add a compelling backstory and the overwhelming support of his hometown, and Crawford has all the ingredients to bypass the ?potential? stage of his career and fast-track right into the overblown, P-4-P hype phase. In other words, Crawford beating Ray Beltran is awfully important to a lot people, and Beltran once again finds himself on the outside looking in.
Whether or not Beltran is capable of exploiting them, Crawford, 27, has a few flaws that may get him in trouble in the future. When he opens fire, Crawford sometimes squares up and leaves a wide target for his opponent. Last June Crawford was rocked by Yuriorkis Gamboa in the ninth round and was forced to hold until his head cleared. At the time, Gamboa, whose best days came at featherweight, was in the midst of a layoff to go along with a KO slump and some spotty performances. Getting staggered late in a fight by a much smaller man may be a dark omen for Crawford, but facing Beltran, 29-6-1 (17), is unlikely to make this portent a reality.
A stand-up pressure fighter who often skimps on the pressure, Beltran, 33, has lost his share of squeakers because of inactivity. He may also have lost some conviction over the years. Before his upset win over Hank Lundy in 2012, Beltran told Steve Kim that he had been contemplating retirement. He also went on to describe the debilitating psychological toll being a journeyman can take on a professional athlete who has more at stake from fight to fight than bragging rights. ?Man, think about it; I got three kids. I got a family,? Beltran told Kim. ?I don?t fight for me; I fight for my family. I can fight for their future and it?s so frustrating that they take it away from you just because they have the power? because they can. It?s real different; you can accept it when you lose but when somebody takes something away from you, it?s hard to describe it because it?s a lot of sacrifice, a lot of hard training, dreams you have in your life? they just take it from you. It?s hard, man. It?s really hard to describe.?
Not exactly light on his feet, Beltran is often too stationary, and his predictable attack may allow Crawford to outmaneuver him with ease from a distance. Beltran, now fighting out of Phoenix but originally from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico, likes to work behind his jab, lead with hooks, and occasionally cross with his right. In close, he tends to dip before throwing hooks, and Crawford will likely look to counter with rights from either stance. One interesting aspect of this fight is the fact that Beltran likes to stand back and counter now and then. Trying to time a man with the kind of improvisational hand speed Crawford has is like trying to catch a bullet?and not the way Penn and Teller do it.
Although Beltran dropped Burns (after breaking his jaw early) en route to an outrageous draw last year, he does not have serious firepower. Since 2011, Beltran has scored only one knockout and he has never stopped a topnotch pro in a career that dates back to the 1990s. Without destructive KO power, Beltran will have to double his usual middling workrate, a task that often seems beyond his reach. Both fighters smacked a lackluster Ricky Burns around in Glasgow. But where Beltran received only a draw for his measured efforts, Crawford was awarded with a unanimous decision for his uptempo attack. Against Crawford, Beltran may have to go into afterburn just to keep up from round to round. In fight after fight, Beltran has failed to accelerate when the scorecards were in the balance, and his record is littered with majority decisions, split decisions, and draws. But Beltran seems ready to bring some new-found verve into Nebraska. ?I?ve got to force the action now, do my job,? he told The Los Angeles Times. Only Beltran knows whether or not he has the drive to finally crash that mansion on the hill.
