Why Crawford will never be #1: The fighters he’s avoiding

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

Lack of elite wins

Crawford is not 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 to get to the top spot, but he won’t fight them because the end result would be bad .

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

Path to number 1

Bakhram Murtazaliev
Janibek Alimkhanuly
David Benavidez
David Morrell
Osleys Iglesias
Diego Pacheco

If Crawford could beat those guys, no one would argue that he doesn’t deserve No. 1 pound for pound. But he hasn’t fought any of those guys, and he doesn’t intend to. So, Crawford shouldn’t be anywhere near first place in the pound-for-pound rankings or second place. Given his weak resume, he should be under 10-15.

They hated all the grown-ups. Nothing new under the sun.

—Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) December 19, 2024

The only notable win Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) has on his 16-year resume is a car crash, rusty ring from Errol Spence. Former unified welterweight champion Spence was coming off a 14-month rest, had lost 50 pounds in training camp and hadn’t looked good since his car accident four years earlier.

Apart from that win against an inactive and exhausted Errol, there is no one, and he was nothing like he once was after he crashed his Ferrari in a high-speed accident on October 10, 2019. The Ferrari was a pile of rubbish of their car accident

Quality of the opposition

– Errol Spence: After the car accident
– Shawn Porter: End of career
– Israil Madrimov: razor close
– Kell Brook: Washed away
– Amir Khan: as above
– Ricky Burns: towards the end of his career
– Yuriorkis Gamboa: Two divisions above his weight class
– Jose Benavidez Jr: gunshot wound