Terence “Bud” Crawford returns home to Nebraska to defend his WBO welterweight world championship against Jose Benavidez Jr. at the CHI Health Center in Omaha live on ESPN.
Crawford (33-0, 24 KOs) comes from Omaha, Nebraska and currently owns the WBO welterweight title after stopping Jeff Horn in a one sided domination in Las Vegas. He is currently unbeaten with world titles in 3 different weight classes, 147 pounds is a division where he feels he will reign the longest and he is in a stacked division class with the likes of Errol Spence and Keith Thurman also undefeated belt holders.
Tonight Crawford will gain extra motivation fighting in front of his hometown who clearly show out to support him. He also has friends in high places such as Billionaire Warren Buffet who has attended several of Crawfords fights in Omaha before.
The reason the fight with Benavidez (27-0, 18 KOs) was made has to do with an alteration and constant trash talk by Benavidez toward Crawford.
Crawford who is generally a mellow guy only talks trash if someone starts it first, and Benavidez confronted Crawford telling him he was scared to fight him and he was ducking him. This was a fight Crawford personally asked for and he is ready to humble the undefeated Arizona based boxer.
For Benavidez who was also a highly promising Amateur boxer, this is his chance to become a world champion and to shock the world by beating the pound for pound best boxer in his hometown.
It will be a very tough fight for him because Crawford is one of the most difficult boxers to prepare for since he can confuse you in the ring by switching stances and makes it hard to find your timing when you face him.
With all the trash talk and bad blood leading into the fight, it can make for a real war inside the ring and the fans will be the winner if it ends up in a back and forth battle between two technical boxer punchers.
Top Rank ESPN Fight Card for October 13
Main Event WBO Welterweight Title Fight – Terence Crawford (Champ) vs. Jose Benavidez
Featherweight – Shakur Stevenson vs. Viorel Simion
Light Middleweight – Carlos Adames vs. Joshua Conley
Welterweight – Mike Alvarado vs. Robbie Cannon
Women’s Lightweight – Mikaela Mayer vs. Vanessa Bradford
The undercards begin streaming live online at 7 PM ET on ESPN+ streaming app, and the main TV card airs at 10/7 PM ET/PT on ESPN (October 13, 2018).
