Terence Crawford brings undefeated modern boxing legend into camp for special sparring ahead of Israil Madrimov clash

Terence Crawford is leaving no stone unturned in preparation for his upcoming clash with Israil Madrimov.

‘Bud’ is set to face the Uzbek for his WBA super-welterweight world title on August 3 in Los Angeles.

It marks his first fight at the new weight after conquering the welterweight division with a win over Errol Spence in July 2023.

The rivals were expected to run it back following their inaugural encounter after Spence activated the rematch clause in their contract.

However, those plans collapsed when Spence underwent cataract surgery to repair his damaged right eye.

Due to the lengthy recovery time, the rematch deal expired, allowing Crawford to move up in weight and challenge for the WBA strap.

Madrimov, who won the title by blasting out Magomed Kurbanov in March, promises to be one of the toughest tests of Crawford’s career and the American is preparing for him as such.

Ahead of fight night, Crawford has drafted in the services of boxing legend Andre Ward, who was seen doing some touch sparring with the Omaha puncher.

Ward uploaded a snippet of their move around to his social media channels on Tuesday morning, which showed Crawford working on his hand-fighting at his home gym.

The comments section was flooded with fans giving props to Crawford for the legendary link-up.

2

Reacting to the clip, one fan wrote: “Iron sharpens iron.”

Another tweeted: “Two of the GOAT’s going at it.”

A third added: “Some knowledge in that ring.”

Somebody else posted: “This is why Terence is pound-for-pound, he has masters of the sport in his gym and he gives them their flowers.”

Meanwhile, a fifth supporter remarked: “The two best Americans since Floyd [Mayweather].”

Ward is one of a select few world champions who retired undefeated.

‘Son of God’ famously hung up his gloves in 2017 with an unblemished 32-0 record after retaining the WBA, IBF, and WBO light-heavyweight titles against divisional great Sergey Kovalev.

Prior to moving up to 175lbs, Ward had established himself as the No.1 super-middleweight of his era by winning the Super Six World Boxing Classic tournament and picking up the WBA and WBC titles at 168lbs.

Besides Kovalev, Ward also holds notable wins over Carl Froch, Mikkel Kessler, Chad Dawson, and Arthur Abraham while you’d be hard-pressed to find a list of the greatest 168lbs boxers of all time that doesn’t include the San Francisco superstar.

Boxing WhatsApp channel