Who do you have ranked as the pound-for-pound best in the sport today? Some rankings have Naoya Inoue at the top, others have Oleksandr Usyk as the best. But Terence Crawford sits at the top of many a list, and “Bud” feels there is zero debate about it – that he is absolutely the #1 P4P best today. And Crawford explained why when speaking on a recent Showtime podcast.
Crawford, unbeaten at 38-0(29) is, we hope, soon to fight his biggest welterweight rival, Errol Spence, in a fight that, if Crawford won it, would for many fans cement his place at the top of the mythical rankings we all seem to love debating so much. But Crawford feels very strongly he is the P4P best in the sport even without a win over Spence.
“I actually know I’m number one,” Crawford said. “There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. I’ve been number one for years in my eyes. When you ask any diehard boxing fan, they’ll say Terence Crawford is number one. Everything that I have done thus far has shown that. Stopping everybody in the welterweight division. Never having a close fight. Dominating every opponent that I ever faced….I’m moving up weight divisions and conquering them one after another. I feel like that goes hand-in-hand with being number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”
Crawford certainly gives a great argument for why he should be at the top of the pile. 34 year old Crawford has never had a close fight, he has stopped each and every welterweight foe he has faced, and he has won world titles at three different weights. Yet the critics ask, what is Crawford’s defining win, his big win? Unlike, say, an Usyk, who holds a big win over Anthony Joshua, or a Canelo, who holds a win over Gennady Golovkin (a controversial win but still a win), Crawford does not have that standout winning performance on his record. Not yet.
So, do you agree with “Bud,” – is he the no ifs, ands or buts number one? Or does Crawford need that defining win to make it definite?