Not many believe Floyd Mayweather Jr. is retired for good. Chances are high that boxing?s biggest superstar of the last decade will eventually come back once more to reach the illustrious 50-0 mark.
But Mayweather?s 10-month hiatus has given the boxing world a taste of life after ?Money May.? ADVERTISING inRead invented by Teads
Boxing, though a little quieter, is in good shape with stars such as Gennady ?GGG? Golovkin, Roman ?Chocolatito? Gonzalez, Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez and Sergey ?Krusher? Kovalev ruling the mythical pound-for-pound list.
But none of the aforementioned fighters is an American, and most importantly, none owns that standout superstar flair.
That?s where Terence Crawford, from Omaha, Nebraska, comes in. Many boxing pundits expect the WBO junior welterweight champion to eventually become the face of the sport, the next pay-per-view superstar and the best pound-for-pound fighter on the planet.
Crawford (28-0, 20 knockouts) will headline his first pay-per-view event when he faces WBC champ Viktor Postol (28-0, 12 KOs) on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden in a title unification showdown. Crawford?s purse for the fight is $1.3 million, with Postol taking $675,000.
Crawford stepped on the scale at 140 pounds and Postol came in at 139.5 on Friday to make the bout official.
?Terence is a star,? said Brian McIntyre, Crawford?s longtime trainer. ?He?s excited and ready to show the world he?s the best 140-pounder in the world.?
It?s clear Crawford and Postol are the best fighters in the division, and if Crawford is able to come out victorious, he?ll be launched into bigger fights ? the kind that casual boxing fans care about.
A possible fight with Manny Pacquiao looms. The future Hall of Famer has scheduled a bout at the Thomas & Mack Center on Nov. 5, with Las Vegan Jessie Vargas and the winner of Crawford-Postol being the final candidates to face Pacquiao.
It?s a possible passing-of-the-torch match that would do wonders for Crawford?s career, but the Nebraskan isn?t focused on landing that fight. Crawford is aware of the expectations put on his shoulders. Just don?t expect him to become a superstar by doing it the traditional way or via the Mayweather method.
?My dreams and my goals were to become a world champion and to make enough money to support my family,? Crawford said. ?I don?t got be the $200 million man or the boxer that won 60-0 and all that. That wasn?t my goal and dreams.?
