Cotto vs Rodriguez results: Terence Crawford shuts out Andrey Klimov in co-feature snoozefest

Terence Crawford has the physical skills and it seems he has the mental approach to be a longtime contender in the sport of boxing, and the rising lightweight certainly didn't do anything tonight to hurt his stock with HBO or his promoters, shutting out Andrey Klimov over 10 rounds, with 100-90 cards across the board, mirrored by the BLH card at 100-90, as well.

But Crawford (22-0, 15 KO) and Klimov (16-1, 8 KO) were booed through about 97% of their fight tonight at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida, and even Max Kellerman's usual lovey-dovey hype man shill job, with comparisons to Marvin Hagler and everything else he could think to throw in there, couldn't change the fact that we learned one thing: Terence Crawford is not going to make it a fight. Someone else will have to do that against him, and if he doesn't have the dance partner, he's not going to cut his own rug.

Crawford should not be blamed for that -- it's not a weakness or a flaw. He easily handled a tentative Klimov and probably didn't lose a single 30-second stretch of this entire fight. But if we have to sit through the lectures about boxing being The Entertainment Business as reasons why Julio Cesar Chavez Jr has to get the scorecards against Bryan Vera, then is it so much to ask that Crawford be involved in something that fight fans actually want to watch?

Crawford has a lot of time left in the sport and will certainly face better foes than Klimov down the line, likely as soon as his next fight, which appears may be against Ricky Burns for the WBO lightweight title. Tonight was no fun to watch, with Kellerman having to constantly revert to noting that Klitschko-Povetkin was even worse, hoping to make draw a comparison that would make Crawford-Klimov excusable as a premium cable fight. Ah, well. It's just another day.

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