Is Terence Crawford the best fighter on the planet today, pound-for-pound? Is Crawford The Face of Boxing? According to the soon to be 38 year old who is rightfully still getting his flowers handed to him after that brilliant, it-was-a-joy-to-watch winning performance over Canelo Alvarez, he is both.
The Pound-for-Pound King
“Bud,” who has been elevated to the No. 1 spot in the P-4-P rankings of Ring Magazine, stated after his decision win over unified 168-pound king Canelo that he is “the face of boxing now,” while he added that he is the pound-for-pound best “like I’ve always been.”
Crawford went on to defy the critics to come up with something, well, critical regarding his now 42-0(31) pro career. In light of what he’s done in the ring and what he did on Saturday night in Las Vegas, it’s tough to send anything negative Crawford’s way, that’s for sure. Still, there are those who are never satisfied, hence the utterly foolish demand from some people for Crawford, who won his first world title down at lightweight, to move up yet again and fight light-heavyweight beast David Benavidez.
That won’t happen, for obvious reasons. So what will Crawford do next, and for how much longer will his duel reign as The Face of Boxing and the pound-for-pound best in the world continue? Some people (Roy Jones and Shakur Stevenson, for two) want to see “Bud” walk away, to go out perfect right now. Others want to see Crawford’s majesty displayed a couple more times. At the same time, there has been some talk of Crawford maybe fighting in the middleweight division.
We sure are going to miss Crawford when he’s gone, no doubt. For now, Crawford is enjoying himself sticking it to those naysayers who tried to stick it to him at times throughout his career.
The New Face of Boxing
“I’m the face of boxing now, and the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world like I’ve always been,” Crawford said as quoted by The Ring. “This is the top of the top. Canelo is an all-time great. He’s the last one. There are no more Canelos. When you look around, you say, ‘I’m the Canelo.’ I feel great. Anybody can be a nobody. A lot of people doubted, said I didn’t fight anybody, I can’t sell, I don’t have a personality. They just wrote me off for years and years, and it all came to a halt.”
Indeed, nobody can do any writing that puts Crawford down, not now, even though there will inevitably be those who try to do so. Crawford is the king right now, the emperor. Who wouldn’t want to be walking in the Nebraskan’s shoes today?