Terence Crawford vs. Dierry Jean: Preview and Prediction for Title Fight

Undefeated, two-division world champion Terence Crawford will bring the show home to Omaha, Nebraska, once again this weekend, when he defends his WBO light welterweight belt against Dierry Jean. 

Crawford last fought in October, when he stopped Thomas Dulorme in Round 6 to capture the vacant WBO belt. That performance confirmed his status as one of boxing's biggest young stars. 

Jean is a hard-nosed contender who has only lost once in his career.

Omaha has never been a boxing hotbed, but the attention of the sport will be focused on the Midwestern city this weekend. 

Jean's 72-inch reach is amazing for a fighter under 5'7". But Crawford fights in a way that maximizes his length, so the two-inch difference shouldn't be much of a factor. 

Both fighters have decent power. While Crawford is five years younger, he's had the tougher competition, both as a professional and in the amateur ranks. Crawford has been boxing since he was seven, and Jean did not take up the sport until he was a grown man. 

Crawford will be fighting in front of his hometown crowd in Nebraska for the third time in four fights. Jean is one of many prominent fighters of Haitian origin who call the Montreal area home. 

With Floyd Mayweather Jr. in at least temporary retirement, Crawford is on the short list of young fighters positioned to become the next great American boxing star. He's undefeated, has won world titles in two divisions and, at 28, is right in the heart of his athletic prime. 

Crawford has the whole package you would look for in a boxing star. He has a stellar amateur pedigree that stretches back to early grade school. He's got outstanding technical skill, physical gifts and fight-ending power. 

Above all of that, he's an intelligent fighter who makes shrewd adjustments during a fight. 

In 2014, he was selected Fighter of the Year by the Boxing Writers Association of America. In March 2014, he travelled to Scotland and won the WBO lightweight title in a one-sided decision over veteran champion Ricky Burns. In June, he turned in one of the year's most sensational performances, stopping undefeated sensation Yuri Gamboa in nine rounds. 

Crawford finished the year by pitching a near shutout against Raymundo Beltran. Last April, he moved up to 140 pounds and knocked out the well-regarded Thomas Dulorme in six rounds.

Crawford's destiny would seem to be waging superfights in the talent-rich welterweight division. But Jean is not an opponent he can afford to take lightly.

Jean is a rugged, natural fighter who has looked good against experienced journeymen such as Jerry Belmontes and Lanardo Tyner. In truth, he's probably more competitive at lightweight, but he's split time between 135 and 140 pounds.

His one major fight was against Lamont Peterson in January 2014. Jean lost by unanimous decision in that fight but had some good moments.  

Terence Crawford

Crawford is one of the most well-rounded fighters in the sport. He is a good ring general who makes smart tactical adjustments during a fight. 

He controls the pace and distance of a fight while looking for the openings to land dangerous punches. 

Dierry Jean 

Jean is an athletic, rugged fighter. He has good conditioning and is not easily discouraged by his opponent's offense. His right hand is a dangerous weapon. 

Terence Crawford

Crawford has shown little of weakness in his professional career. He sometimes starts a bit slow, but even then, his mid-fight adjustments have always ended up cancelling that out. He is relatively untested above the lightweight limit. 

Dierry Jean 

Jean showed predictable movement against Lamont Peterson, moving primarily in a forward-backward direction. That makes him easy to adjust to and time. 

Jean should be a fairly easy opponent for Crawford to get a read on. His movement is predictable. The big challenge for Crawford will be to stay cool in the pocket and find the spaces to land his own shots. 

Even though Crawford is giving up two inches in reach to Jean, he can use his jab and footwork to control the fight at a distance. After a few rounds of studying Jean, he should be able to catch him with his big punches as he comes forward or else sting him in retreat. 

If Crawford commits to making this a boxing match in the opening rounds and sticks to that strategy, this should be a simple fight for him to win. 

Note that simple doesn't mean easy. Crawford can expect a bruising night at the office. But if he uses his skill and intelligence, he should prevail. 

Jean wants to start at a fast pace and make this an ugly fight for Crawford. He's not going to outbox the champion, so he needs to make it into a brawl and outfight him. 

I don't like the way Jean tends to move straight in and out, but it could be a hard habit for him to break. So when he moves forward, he needs to do so with aggression, throwing multiple-punch combinations to slow down Crawford's ability to set and counter. 

When he moves backward, Jean should look to retreat behind his jab and the straight right. He likely won't use his small reach advantage to fight at range, but he could use it to give himself extra space when he's backing out at the end of an exchange. 

Get ready to party, Omaha. The local champion is going to keep his ball rolling this Saturday night against Jean. 

The biggest question about this fight is not whether or not Crawford will win, but whether or not he will win by knockout. Despite having good power, he's not a knockout artist, and he doesn't take unnecessary risks to force a big punch. 

On top of that, Jean is a tough, durable fighter. At lightweight, he could have a great shot to win a world title. 

But Saturday night he is going to lose a one-sided decision to Crawford. Jean might win a few rounds in the early part of the fight, as he out-hustles Crawford, while the champion is busy studying his faults. 

In the second half, it's going to turn into a one-sided affair. A late stoppage is not out of the question, but I'm predicting Crawford will win by about nine rounds to three. 

Ideally, the next stop for Crawford would be a unification fight with WBC champion Viktor Postol, who turned in a stunning Round 10 KO of Lucas Matthysse last month. So long as he takes care of business against Jean, Crawford vs. Postol would be one of the most compelling fights possible. 

In the long term, Crawford will no doubt join the parade of talent in the welterweight ranks. Over the next five years, he should be involved in some of the sport's biggest fights.