Why Crawford will never be No. 1: The fighters he’s avoiding

Terence Crawford reacted when Shakur Stevenson came to his defense, saying that “all the best fighters” rate Bud as No. 1, but the writers see him at No. 2 pound for pound. Instead of Crawford being modest, he said, “They hated all the greats.”

Lack of elite victories

Crawford isn’t a great fighter because he hasn’t beaten any of the elite at 154, 147, 140 or 135. There are fighters between 154 and 168 that Bud could fight for the number one spot, but he’s not going to fight them because the final result would be negative.

NOT all top fighters rate Crawford No. 1 or 2 pound-for-pound because his resume is too thin to place him in the top two spots in the rankings. To be the pound-for-pound number one, Crawford would need a deeper resume with high-level wins than he has.

Road to #1

Bakhram Murtazaliev
Janibek Alimkhanuly
David Benavidez
David Morell
Osley Iglesias
Diego Pacheco

If Crawford could beat those guys, no one would say he doesn’t deserve the No. 1 pound-for-pound spot. But he hasn’t fought any of those guys and has no intention of doing so. Therefore, Crawford shouldn’t be anywhere near the number one spot in the pound-for-pound rankings or number two. Given his weak resume, he should be below 10-15.

They hated all the greats. Nothing new under the sun. https://t.co/TUVCpoGaXv

—Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) December 19, 2024

The only notable victory Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) has on his 16-year resume is a car accident and a rusty Errol Spence ring. Spence, a former unified welterweight champion, was coming off a 14-month layoff, had lost 50 pounds in training camp and had not looked well since his car accident four years earlier.

Other than that victory against an inactive and exhausted Errol, there is no one, and he was not like before after crashing his Ferrari in a high-speed accident on October 10, 2019. The Ferrari was a pile of junk from his car. crash

Opposition quality

– Errol Spence: After the car accident
– Shawn Porter: End of career
– Israil Madrimov: razor close
– Kell Brook: wash
– Amir Khan: Same as above
– Ricky Burns: At the end of his career
– Yuriorkis Gamboa: Two divisions above his weight class
– José Benavidez Jr: Wound after gunshot