By Norm Frauenheim-
It’s a role nobody ever foresaw for Jose Benavidez, Jr.
At 19, he was shy and talented, a prodigy embarrassed by what he heard from his seat in the back row of undercard fighters during a trash-talking rant from Joel Casamayor at a news conference before the Cuban’s last fight, a knockout loss to Timothy Bradley at Las Vegas’ MGM Grand in November, 2011.
After the final expletive, I remember asking Benavidez what he thought of Casamayor’s profane monologue. He said that wasn’t him. He said he was more fighter than talker.
After seven years in a craft that can leave expectations and faces unrecognizable, however, Benavidez finds himself cast as the talker before his steep challenge of Terence Crawford on Oct. 13 in an ESPN-televised bout.
“While he’s talking, I’m working,’’ Crawford said during a conference call Thursday from his Colorado Springs training camp.
It’s a Benavidez role that was cast last February before a victory in Corpus Christi, a comeback from a gunshot wound above his right knee sustained while walking his dog on a canal bank in Phoenix in August 2016.
During the weigh-in, Benavidez spotted Crawford in the crowd. After stepping off the scale, he confronted Crawford. Benavidez accused him of ducking him and invited him to step outside. It was a well-chronicled exchange, often repeated. That, of course, was the idea.
Benavidez talked his way into the fight. He also talked his way into what figures to be the biggest paycheck in his career.
For him, it makes sense, dollars too, for a bout that also was an easy choice for Crawford, who can further embellish his pound-for-pound credentials in only his second fight at welterweight. What’s more, both are promoted by Top Rank, which signed Crawford to a contract extension in early September.
With a new deal at a new weight, Crawford figured he’d grant Benavidez his wish. To paraphrase an old line, the Phoenix welterweight might regret it. One-sided odds put his chances at an upset in Crawford’s hometown at slim to none. But that also means there’s not much to lose for Benavidez, who has been training in Omaha for the last couple of weeks, according to Top Rank.
If Benavidez can hang on, go the full 12 rounds against the feared Crawford, he might gain the kind of respect that could earn him a shot at other welterweights with belts and name-recognition. Most have not been willing to take the risk against Crawford.
Only Errol Spence says he wants the fight in what looms as the biggest welterweight bout in years. Keith Thurman avoids talk about Crawford. Manny Pacquiao doesn’t mention him at all.
But Benavidez sees an opportunity. Give him credit for that.
He’s been talking about and to Crawford for the last two-to-three years. Perhaps, Benavidez sees something in him that nobody else has. On the tale of the tape, Benavidez has advantages. At 6-feet-2, Benavidez is an unusually tall welterweight. Crawford is listed at 5-8. Benavidez has about a three-inch advantage in reach.
It all adds up to a fighter taller and rangier than any Crawford has ever faced. But the tape’s tale doesn’t include any mention of Crawford’s instinct. It’s hard to quantify. He switches from left to right and back to left without any apparent hesitation. Switch-hitting is often considered a weakness, a sign that a fighter isn’t any good with either hand.
In Crawford, however, it’s a strength augmented by power end precision in each hand. Depending on the moment and what he sees, he’ll jab with traditional left, then lead with the left, all within an almost imperceptible split-second. So far, there has been no way to defend against it, or even prepare for it. In an old sport that has seen it all, Crawford has re-introduced a versatile weapon he uses with an effectiveness as unprecedented as it is lethal.
A looming question is whether Benavidez will resort to a controversial tactic that allowed him to escape with a WBA 140-pound title in a 2014 decision over Mauricio Herrera. He stood upright, his back on the ropes and his face behind upraised hands. It was a rope-a-dope posture, and it worked because of precise jab that landed enough to gain an edge on the scorecards. But the crowd booed.
“I think he’ll want to make a real fight of it in front of my hometown fans, but if he does that, we’ll counter it,’’ Crawford said Thursday in what might prove to be the last word on Oct. 13.
