Terence Crawford still seeking respect as he faces Amir Khan hoping to finally silence his doubters

Sometimes it bothers Terence Crawford.

He will dominate a fight so completely that it’s hard to find minutes, forget about entire rounds, that he didn’t win. Yet afterward, rather than earning him praise for his package of power and precision, what follows is criticism of the beaten opponent.

“When you’ve got undefeated gold medallists and world champions, where before the fight a lot of writers and fans think that they’re going to steamroll me or they’re too big for me, and this is going to be the toughest fight of my career, after the fight, they say, ‘He wasn’t that good,’” Crawford said. “Or, ‘He was a stand-up fighter.’ Or, ‘He was slow.’ Or, ‘We knew you were going to do this, we just had to hype up the fight.’ So they discredit me.”

Crawford will try to keep finding fights that can change that, and he believes he’s got one on Saturday.

Crawford (34-0, 25 KOs) defends his welterweight title at Madison Square Garden against veteran Amir Khan (33-4, 20 KOs), the 2004 Olympic silver medallist from England who 15 years later is looking for what could be his biggest victory as a professional.