ANTWONE SMITH vs HENRY CRAWFORD

Welterweight Antwone Smith has been highly impressive in his televised appearances this year. He fights with a maturity beyond his 18 bouts, very much like one of the old-school boxers. It is possible to see a touch of a James Toney or a Floyd Mayweather Jr. in the way that he rolls away from punches and comes back with counters. On Friday Smith graduates from ESPN to ShoBox with a 10-rounder against the unbeaten Henry Crawford, from Paterson, NJ, and the 22-year-old Miami prospect will need to be at the top of his form if he is to continue his upward progression.

This is the sort of fight that fans like, a meeting of ambitious, talented boxers who take their careers seriously, and it is to the credit of both camps that they are rolling the dice in this risky match.

Crawford, 28, has been a bit under the radar, but he has won 22 bouts in a row and in his last fight he outclassed the southpaw Kaseem Wilson, who quickly went into a survival mode.

Smith boxed beautifully in his last fight when he gave Richard Gutierrez a boxing lesson, but the more experienced Colombian had the look of a burnt-out fighter who floundered when his attempts to bully the younger man came to naught.

This was Smith’s biggest win, and it came right after another excellent performance when Smith won a unanimous decision over the unbeaten Mexican Norberto Gonzalez.

In each of these fights, Smith showed that he can box and fight. Smith was handicapped by a cut over the eye from a clash of heads against Gutierrez but he never faltered. When the doctor closely examined the cut later in the bout, Smith practically pleaded with him not to stop the fight when he must have known he would have won by technical decision had the bout gone to the cards. This showed that Smith has the instincts of a real fighter — he wanted to keep going despite the blood flowing from the cut.

Crawford is an excellent fighter, too — a 5ft 10ins boxer-puncher who stands three inches taller than Smith. A two-time New Jersey Golden Gloves champion, Crawford gets top-quality sparring with Kendall Holt, Pawel Wolak and Ossie Duran. He showed he can overcome adversity when rallying to take command after suffering a first-round knockdown against a hard-hitting Mexican named Luis Santos — Crawford dropped Santos in the fourth and won by technical decision in six rounds when his opponent was cut in a clash of heads.

Going by form, Crawford should win on Friday because he easily outpointed Jerome Ellis whereas the Bahamian welterweight gave Smith a tough, close fight six months later. Different fighters, different fights, though. Smith seems to me to be the type of boxer who fights to the level of his opposition. For instance, he was given a close tussle by the willing but ordinary Ben Ankrah — the crowd booed the decision — but then he sparkled in the back-to-back victories against Gonzalez and Gutierrez.

Crawford is the most capable and dangerous opponent that Smith has faced. Tall and muscular, the New Jersey boxer is the more imposing physical specimen, but Smith has fought the tougher opposition and just might be a bit more versatile.

This, to me, is a dead-even fight. As always in fights such as this, the winner will be the boxer who can dig deeper. I’m leaning a little bit towards Smith to find the answers to the questions that will be asked of him in this first-rate match.