Franchon Crews the “Heavy Hitting Diva”
By Felipe Leon
Despite an extensive and very successful amateur career with numerous national championships at different weight classes, the newly crowned WBC super middleweight champion Franchon Crews-Dezurn (4-1, 1KO) didn’t jump into the boxing radar until her first pro fight.
In her first bout for bucks Crews-Dezurn faced a familiar face, Claressa Shields, in November 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada, on the under card of Andre Ward-Sergey Kovalev I. The four-round fight also marked Shields pro debut.
“The fact that we both came straight out of the amateurs, we fought like amateurs,” Crews-Dezurn said in an exclusive interview with the all-female boxing podcast 2Min Round. “The only difference is we didn’t have head gear on. Me personally as I have progressed in my professional career I have realized even though it is still two minutes you have to pace yourself. You can flurry and throw a lot of punches but the judges want to see effective blows.”
“You can take your time because you have more rounds,” she continued. “You start off with four rounds but then you start fighting six, eight and 10 rounds so you have more time and you have to pace yourself.”
The 31 year-old Crews-Dezurn, who originally got into boxing to lose weight for her singing career, is coming off the biggest win as a professional earlier in mid-September when she defeated via a majority decision Maricela Cornejo for the gold and green strap Shields left it vacant with her move down to middleweight. The fight was broadcast by ESPN and was held at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas, a world apart from the massive T-Mobile Arena of her pro debut.
“When I fought Claressa at the T-Mobile Arena, the energy was huge,” she explained. “You had Andre Ward fighting Kovalev so it was big. Before my pro career I fought on very large stages, I competed at the world level as an amateur. I just took that feeling and tried to relate it to fighting in the T-Mobile Arena.”
“At the Hard Rock Café, it was more intimate,” she said. “It was a great presentation by Golden Boy (Promotions) and ESPN but it was more of an intimate club show even though it was a world title fight, I just looked at it as an intimate club show so I wouldn’t make the situation bigger than it was if that makes sense.”
Once in the ring against Cornejo, Crews-Dezurn says she wasn’t overwhelmed by the stage, the cameras or the magnitude of the event. “I had envisioned this months ago. This is something I had worked hard for so when it happened I wasn’t surprised. I think I am still on the high. I haven’t had a chance yet to take it all in.”
On paper the Crews-Dezurn vs. Cornejo had all the makings of a “fight of the year” candidate with many people having trouble deciding between Cornejo’s advantage in professional experience and size against Crews-Dezurn’s amateur pedigree and relentless style.
At the end, it wasn’t an issue since Cornejo seemed not to show up and relented to her opponent’s aggressiveness. Later Cornejo, although not excusing herself, did mention pain in her legs and back after an early clinch in the fight found her thrown down to the canvas by Crews-Dezurn.
“No, I wasn’t surprised,” Crews-Dezurn said with a smirk. “I was surprised she lasted that long and I attribute that to my technique not being sharp. At the end of the day I felt she was mentally weak. I knew all she had was a right hand. Her boxing IQ isn’t that high. When you are put in certain situations adaptability is a strength and she just didn’t have that strength. I’m surprised I didn’t stop her.”
Another fact that didn’t surprise Crews-Dezurn was how soon she won a world title. She mentioned Vasyl Lomachenko and Shields winning theirs as quickly as she did. “Claressa became a world champion by her fourth fight and I know I am at the same level, why cant I?”
Different journey
Crews-Dezurn didn’t lose sight of her goal for a world title despite some promotional issues and the fact she wasn’t getting fights. Her bout against Cornejo was her first since January.
“I just felt like I was seeing my peers getting back-to-back fights. I don’t ever envy anyone,” she explained. “You had Kali Reis fighting multiple times, Raquel Miller, you had Claressa fighting, all these girls were fighting in my weight class, I would understand if I didn’t have a promoter but I had a promoter who had the means. Why was everybody else fighting but they couldn’t find me a fight? I have a passport. I’ll travel; I’ll do anything I need to do. It was breaking my heart.”
Crews-Dezurn was signed to Salita Promotions who also holds the contract for not only Claressa Shields but also the current WBC and WBO middleweight champion Christina Hammer. After a series of starts and stops, Crews-Dezurn ended up asking for her release from the agreement.
“There is no hard feelings,” she said of her previous promoter, former fighter Dmitry Salita. “He was very understanding. Everything isn’t for everybody. I am glad Claressa and Christina Hammer have their opportunity to shine, my journey is a little different, it just wasn’t meant to be.”
With her win she’s had a couple of promoters approach her in hopes of working with her in the near future. “I would like to fight in December, at least one more time before the end of the year. I am in a precarious situation where I don’t have a promoter so I really want to get my business straight before anything. I would love to have a career like Laila Ali or Cecilia Braekhus. I want to unify but people will probably see me as a danger so I just have to get my business situated first.”
Franchon is well aware of her place in female boxing and is looking forward to continue to be a part of it and to keep promoting the sport.
“I feel women’s boxing is definitely moving forward. Especially with fights like my fight against Maricela but it is going to be a long road,” she said. “I hope I am here long enough to help push women’s boxing to equal purses and things of that nature. We have come a long way, our fight was the first fight televised on ESPN in 14 years, then you had Cecilia Braekhus vs. Kali Reis the first female fight on HBO and Claressa with her ShoBox deal. That is big stuff.”
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To listen to the complete interview, please visit BlogTalkRadio.com/2MinRound