I don’t think they would have. So continuing on that train of thought, I want to further understand your view of everything. What do you think the reason was for Crawford choosing to continue with Top Rank? Do you think he was scared?
Who knows why he stayed with Top Rank? I'm not going to speculate. Whatever the reason it slowed his career to a halt and wasted many of his prime years. It really rubbed fans wrong, especially around here, which is why so many of them wanted to see him lose to Spence.
He was naturally smaller, but most considered him to be the superior fighter at the time. The odds were close to even if I remember correctly. Crawford might have been slightly favored due to how inactive Gamboa was and the fact that it was in Crawfords hometown so the judging would be biased. Having Crawford is one thing, but no one expected Crawford to knock him out or turn out to be as good as of a fighter as he has now.
According to the odds history Crawford was indeed a slight favorite. Gamboa only had a single fight in the lightweight division at the time and Crawford was already the WBO champ. Sure, Gamboa was highly touted back then because he's Cuban and was an Olympic champion. As you said he didn't live up to the hype. Not that it really matters because he was always in Rigondeaux's shadow.
Damn, that's a tough call...Kellerman or DC? You have a noose I can borrow?
Eh, I’m not too sure about the Rigondeaux’s shadow part. Rigondeaux was way more under appreciated back then. People responded way better to Gamboa’s style and that got him way more attention than Rigondeaux. The same year that Gamboa fought Crawford, Rigondeaux fought someone who was more popular than them both in Nonito Donaire. And I think the big win there for Rigo versus the big loss against Bud for Gamboa is what eventually made Rigondeaux more popular and viewed as a superior fighter. But before that, it was definitely Gamboa who had more of a spotlight on him.
Rigondeaux is one of the greatest boxers to ever defect from the Cuban amateur system. His style was never appreciated by the masses, even by many hardcores, but his actual skills (particularly his defense & counterpunching) were appreciated. Gamboa wasn't regarded as the kind of talent that he was. It's no different than Usyk being in Loma's shadow for so many years. The difference is that Usyk eventually came out of it.
Yeah I’m not saying what the reality is. We learned the reality as years went by. I’m saying what the perception was at the time. Rigondeaux eventually did come out of Gamboa’s shadow. But it took Gamboa losing a really big fight to Crawford and Rigo winning a really big fight against Donaire for that to happen. Before that, people weren’t checking for Rigo like they were Gamboa.
Crawford saw enough slippage to take the fight. He’s not fighting a real 168lb guy
I remember when both turned pro and Rigo's debut was more anticipated by the boxing community. That's to be expected whenever a 2x Olympic gold medalist joins the professional ranks. He used to spar Gamboa and would handle him. The guy was a scary talent back then. Freddie Roach didn't even want Pac sparring him. He said that he was worried about him walking into a big shot. Rigo threw some of the nastiest counters you'll ever see. Lightning left hands with wicked intentions written all over them.
