Justann John Crawford (born July 24, 1973) is a retired indigenous Australian Olympic boxer.
[1] Justann Crawford's boxing career was cut short because of an eye injury and mild brain damage in 1998 at age 25.
His grandfather on his mother's side was boxer, Bobby Whelan, who died on the West Gate Bridge when it collapsed in 1970.
Crawford was constantly picked on as a child for having freckles, blisters and red hair, he wanted to participate in boxing for a boost of confidence and to be able to look after himself.
While Crawford lost his next two bouts, he defeated Jason Baxter of the Queensland Boxing Association at a Queenstown tournament on April 19, 1989.
[7] In August 1987, Crawford, aged 14, competed in a tournament promoted by Peter Lord in the Glenorchy Football Clubroom, Crawford defeated a 16-year-old member of the Latrobe Boxing Club, Darren Woods, who also trained under world champion Gene Chugg.
Crawford's bout against Bo Belbin at the Hobart Hellenic Hall was described as the "Tasmanian fight of the year"[7] The 1992 Summer Olympics was held in Barcelona, Spain.
"[9] Crawford successfully entered his first Olympic Games where he competed in the Middleweight Division, but was defeated by Aleksandr Lebzyak of the Unified Team.
[1] In the 1993 Oceania championship, Justann defeated Greg Bell from Canterbury in the Light Heavyweight Division.
[10] In the 1997 Championship hosted in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, Crawford was defeated by Regan Foley from Auckland at 3:2 points.
On April 6, Crawford competed in the Light Heavyweight Division semi-finals at 81 kg (179 lb) and defeated Young Deuk from Korea where the referee stopped the contest, resulting in an automatic win for Crawford, and proceeded to quarterfinals, where he defeated a Canadian competitor.
In the quarterfinals round, Crawford at 81 kg (179 lb) defeated Marco Bangard from Mauritius where the referee stopped the contest.
However, Crawford was defeated in a fight in West Samoa before the games, he was then called in for a neuropsychological test by the Institute of Sport following growing concerns over his mental health.
Crawford claimed that nothing was wrong with him and that the only problem was that his septum was going across his nose which distorted his voice, yet he still agreed to take the test.
[3][17][18] Crawford's departure from the ring was considered controversial due to the lack of information on why Crawford was deemed unfit to compete in the Commonwealth Games despite being elected as team captain, while also being qualified to compete in the Commonwealth Games in the first place and the reason behind his sudden retirement from the boxing ring.
However, Crawford spoke about the neuropsychological medical exam conducted on him in later years, revealing that the eye injury was not the only reason why he retired young.
After retiring from the ring at age 25, Crawford returned to Tasmania Institute of Sport to be a manager of the boxing team.