OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) – Terence Crawford now has three Unified Division Titles. Here at home, he has a large team of supporters celebrating his success, some of which go way back.
Terence ‘Bud’ Crawford began training at CW Boxing Club in downtown Omaha, under Carl Washington, at three years old.
“Silly, kind of crazy, always laughing — he has a distinct laugh,” Carl described Crawford’s qualities, even at a young age.
“He wasn’t scared of anything. He wasn’t scared about running. He wasn’t scared about sparring. He wasn’t scared about speaking up for himself, you know? He was very assertive, and this is what I’m trying to teach some of these other kids,” said Carl.
Carl’s gym now trains nearly 60 kids a day. Many of them are working to live up to Bud’s legacy.
“Well, they always ask how Bud got where he got. He got where he got by boxing in tournaments, trying to always box the best around,” Carl said.
Bud’s influence stretches farther than the CW Club’s current boxers. Former CW boxer, Mike Wiggins, went to the Crawford-Alvarez fight on Saturday.
Wiggin trained with Bod’s father for a short time. He says it’s important to support the people in his circle and other Omaha natives.
“It’s just a small knit community, but Bud is a die-hard…100% dedication, it proves what dedication can do, and he had a lot of people around him that didn’t believe in him and now he’s going to have a lot of people that say ‘wow,’” said Wiggins.
Carl said he wasn’t surprised by the outcome of Saturday’s fight.
“The way he’s been coming up and his attitude, uh, I wasn’t too surprised. You know, I figured that he was going to win the fight. I didn’t think he was going to dominate him that well, which he did do,” Carl explained.
Carl adds, Bud’s success says something about his gym, and Omaha as a community.
“It says that we did a good job, because at one particular time people used to doubt him, but as he started winning, they got behind his corner, and when he became a winner, they stuck there, and he stuck here. He’s never for one minute forgot where he came from.”
Carl talked about the kids that train at the gym now. He told First Alert 6 the most important thing they teach them is to have respect for others. They also encourage them beyond the gym, to do well in school and other aspects of their lives.
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