Terence Crawford has ordered the boxing world to admit he’s the best despite only one Pound for Pound win in eight years.
“Bud” lies at number six on the World Boxing News Pound-for-Pound list after beating his first P4P star since 2013 in Shawn Porter last November.
Since then, all other wins on Crawford’s resume have come against fighters outside the WBN P4P Top 50 or washed former world titlists.
Despite that fact, Crawford insists he’s the top dog, and startlingly, some experienced names in the sport agree with him.
One Pound for Pound win since 2014
If you analyze his resume, you’ll see that Porter was the first time the undefeated welterweight star had faced someone else in the P4P Top 50 since Yuriorkis Gamboa in 2014.
Since Gamboa, Crawford has dispatched a list of solid foes. However, others were way past their best, and nobody was seasoned as a champion like Porter.
The knockout victory over Porter was enough to cement Crawford in the Pound for Pound debate. However, unless he beats someone else in or around the Top 20, he has no claim whatsoever to being the number one in the world.
Amazingly, many others in the boxing fraternity see Crawford as the best despite his C.V. not displaying the evidence.
Crawford will get nowhere near the top spot on the WBN list unless he beats 147 rival Errol Spence Jr. or moves up to 154 and defeats Jermell Charlo.
Terence Crawford at 147
There are no doubts about Crawford’s apparent talents. The only argument is that the most prominent names at 147 have eluded him.
Manny Pacquiao, Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, and Danny Garcia were not secured. It was only against Shawn Porter that Crawford landed one of the big five at the weight. That also only came about due to a WBO order.
He did a brilliant job against Porter and proved he could be a long-reigning P4P king. However, fighters today cannot live off their past achievements.
Some still have Crawford at the top due to his four-belt exploits at 140 pounds.
Dissecting Crawford’s later part of those impressive 39 victories, standout wins came over Ray Beltran, Victor Postol, Jose Benavidez Jr., and Egidijus Kavaliauskas. But those still aren’t enough to elevate him over Oleksandr Usyk, Naoya Inoue, Spence, Canelo Alvarez, or Dmitry Bivol.
Undisputed in the past
They have fought the better opposition in their respective weight classes or become undisputed within the last five years.
Achieving that feat against Julius Indongo, who Crawford fought in 2017, has poorly diminished as his former opponent suffered loss after loss.
Looking at the history of P4P on WBN, Crawford has never reached the number-one spot. A win over Porter helped, but he has to land Spence or Charlo in the coming year to have any chance of nailing down the sport he claims to own already.
Taking to social media after beating European champion David Avanesyan, Crawford proclaimed: “Thanks to everyone that tuned in last night. Even the people that were trashing the fight.
“They said they weren’t watching it. But they were the first I’m the comment section. Just admit it I’m the best!”
Sadly, Terence, you’re still not there yet. Better names are needed.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of experienced boxing writer Phil Jay. Twitter @PhilJWBN. Follow WBN: Facebook, Insta, Twitter.
