Boxing: Hank Lundy Feels He Can Shock the World, Beat Terence Crawford

In the 2006 movie “Poseidon,” actor Matt Dillon plays an unctuous card shark named Lucky Larry who refers to himself as “Lucky Larry” and lives in a bit of a delusional world before he gets an early ouster from the film when he is squashed by a great engine.

Hank Lundy could be the real-life boxing equivalent of Lucky Larry. Lundy speaks of himself in the third person. He can be grating, especially to the opponents he faces, and it seems he may have crossed more than a few lines here in agitating one of the best pound-for-pound fighters today. He puts in the hard work; there is no questioning that.

Lundy plans to shock the boxing world on HBO Championship Boxing this Saturday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, when he faces WBO super lightweight champion Terence Crawford (27-0, 19 KOs), the great engine in this tangible script, inside The Theater at Madison Square Garden. Lundy (26-5-1, 13 KOs) just has a unique way of carrying himself and expressing it.

Lundy, 32, does not care what others think. He is busy being Hank Lundy, a man who has lost two of his last three fights. His one victory came against Carlos Winston Velasquez, who entered their fight with a 23-21-1 record.

“At the end of the day, I voice my opinion and most of these fighters let their managers and promoters do their talking,” Lundy said. “I’m Hank Lundy. I do my own talking. I do what I do and say what I say. It comes from deep down inside of me, and it shows in my fighting. I just remember Crawford in the amateurs coming up, before I arrived on the scene. There were a lot of stories of him getting beat up all of the time, crying, and I witnessed him getting beat up by Danny Garcia. That’s what I remember. Then he tried to play at the press conference that he only had something like 77 amateur fights. He didn’t have to lie to the public like that. I’m telling you I’ve seen him get pounded on.

“This is the whole thing,” he added. “He’s fighting a different type of fighter when he fights a Hank Lundy. He hasn’t been tested like he will against Hank Lundy. He hasn’t been in there with all of the tools that Hank Lundy has. I know I’m in his head. It’s one of the things I’m really good with. It’s why you’ll see a completely different Terence Crawford during fight night. I guarantee that. I can’t be too specific what I’m going to do; I’m just telling everyone on fight night I will take Terence Crawford out of his game.”

How exactly that will happen is anyone’s guess. Lundy is a durable fighter who at 5-foot-7 is an inch shorter than Crawford. He will also be giving away two inches in reach, 70 inches to 68, along with disadvantages in quickness, speed and the quality of opponents he has faced.

“There will be a lot of things no one has ever seen, and trust me, I’m going to win,” Lundy said. “No one has seen the best Hank Lundy yet. I’m not intimidated by fighting on HBO and those bright lights. When Hammerin’ Hanks’s back is against the ropes, I always show up and I show out. This is my first time fighting for a world title and fighting in Madison Square Garden. After this great showing, everyone will come back to see Hammerin’ Hank to sellout events.

“I’m ready to explode on Terence Crawford,” he added. “You’ll see the best of Hank Lundy. What people failed to realize in previous fights was that wasn’t the best of Hank Lundy. I was going through different things in the boxing game that all fighters go through. Like Hank Lundy, I had to come up the tough way. First and foremost, I’ve had tougher opponents than Crawford. My family is motivation for me to keep looking forward. I’m Hank Lundy. A guy like me from Philadelphia coming from these streets when you can die any single day -- that’s a challenge. It’s where I came from. Getting in the ring and fighting this guy is going to be easy. There’s no quit in Hammerin’ Hank.”

Joseph Santoliquito is the president of the Boxing Writer's Association of America and a frequent contributor to Sherdog.com's mixed martial arts and boxing coverage. His archive can be found here.