David Avanesyan made his way to the star – Kommersant newspaper No. 197 (7398) of 10/22/2022

Russian boxer David Avanesyan will perform in one of the most high-profile fights of the end of this year in professional boxing. Experienced Avanesyan, who has recently been knocking out all opponents that get in his way, got a chance in December to change his European welterweight title (up to 66.7 kg) for the World Boxing Organization (WBO) world title. True, for this he needs to cope with an outstanding opponent – American Terence Crawford, who won all 38 fights in his career, is one of the best fighters, regardless of the weight category.

The fact that Terence Crawford and David Avanesyan have signed a contract for a fight in which Crawford’s World Boxing Organization welterweight title will be at stake has been reported by ESPN. The fight will take place on December 10 in the American city of Omaha and will be broadcast in the pay-per-view format by the BLK Prime service.

This is an extremely significant event for boxing. True, it is Terence Crawford’s participation in it that makes him so in the first place. Crawford is not just a star of modern boxing, but a star of an exceptional level of brightness. The 35-year-old American has a phenomenal track record. He has 38 victories in 38 fights in his career, in which he often faced other celebrities. He was the world champion in lightweight (up to 61.2 kg), then he got the status of the absolute champion in the next category (up to 63.5 kg), and in 2018 he moved to welterweight, winning the championship belt again on the move. In it, he spent a total of six fights, in each facing an extremely strong opponent. But none of them – neither Jeff Horn, nor Jose Benavidez, nor Amir Khan, nor Egidijus Kavaliauskas, nor Kell Brook, nor Sean Porter – managed to hold out against Crawford until the final gong.

In all independent classifications of the best fighters, regardless of the weight category, Terence Crawford, who is extremely popular in the United States, is close to the top. And in the ESPN rating, he is the first at all.

Initially, it was assumed that at the end of this year, Crawford will perform in an even brighter fight from the point of view of the “billboard”. In early autumn, it was believed that his representatives had practically agreed on the terms of the match with another American superstar, Errol Spence. Spence, who also has no misfires in his track record, owns the other three welterweight titles – the International Boxing Federation (IBF), the World Boxing Council (WBC) and the World Boxing Association (WBA). However, the matter never came to the signing of the agreement. Spence’s side, while explaining the delays with him, constantly referred to the injuries that the boxer received recently.

Explaining the decision to face David Avanesyan, Terence Crawford stressed that Errol Spence is still his priority, despite the fact that, according to Crawford, he is “buying time”, postponing the conclusion of the contract. And with it already clear that Spence will not be returning to the ring in the coming months, the WBO champion felt he had to find an emergency replacement to match him. Otherwise, Terence Crawford would have taken a huge break in his career, threatening to lose his tone: his previous fight, with Shawn Porter, took place in November 2021.

Terence Crawford called David Avanesyan “an extremely dangerous opponent”, referring primarily to the fresh part of the long boxing career of the Russian, who is a year younger than the American.

Avanesyan made his way into the welterweight elite back in the middle of the last decade, defeating such famous fighters as Shane Mosley and Lamont Peterson, and winning the title of the so-called WBA regular champion. But in 2018, he suffered an early defeat from Egidijus Kavaliauskas, and it could have hurt his prospects.

Meanwhile, David Avanesyan, after that failure, experienced something like a new heyday. He won the European title and won six fights in a row by knockout, while among those who could not resist under his pressure was, say, a strong Briton Josh Kelly. These fights cemented Avanesyan’s reputation as a spectacular boxer who prefers a tough and uncompromising style, which, of course, was taken into account by the Crawford team when they determined the ideal opponent for the American.

Alexey Dospekhov