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Crawford doesn’t know which one will win when the time comes for them to face each other in the future – if they ever do face each other Crawford won’t predict who will win if they do battle it out
Crawford thinks he’ll be able to fight Thurman and Spence, because his promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank said he has no problems matching him against Premier Boxing Champion’s [PBC] fighters. Crawford points out that he fought two PBC fighters in the past in John Molina Jr. and Felix Diaz. Crawford believes that because he fought the PBC fighters Molina and Diaz, it means he’ll have no problems facing the more talented PBC fighters Thurman, Spence, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia.
“Of course, I think I’m an underrated puncher,” Crawford said to Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports News when asked if he thinks his power will carry up with him to the 147 lb. division. “I’ve hurt everybody I’ve stepped into the ring with, every single one of them. I believe in my power, and I believe in my boxing ability. I’m going to be alright,” Crawford said.
Crawford hasn’t fought anyone really good during his career at 135 or 140 to show that he’s a big puncher, and especially to show that he’ll be able to hang with the best at 147. Crawford’s resume is thin during his career with his wins coming against these fighters:
• Yuriorkis Gamboa – A pumped up featherweight that Crawford fought at lightweight, a division that he didn’t have the size for
• Hank Lundy
• Julius Indongo
• John Molina Jr.
• Raymundo Beltran
• Ricky Burns
• Viktor Postol – a slender fighter that would likely be taken apart by guys like Errol Spence, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter
• Dierry Jean
• Briedis Prescott
“I would say Errol Spence and Keith Thurman,”Crawford said when asked who is the best fighter in the welterweight division today. “They are the 2 best in the welterweight division. For me to say which one is No.1 and which one is #2, they would have to face each other for me to say that. I know for a fact that Keith is the bigger puncher. I know for a fact that Keith punches harder than Errol, but Errol is more relentless than Keith. There’s a lot of pros and cons with both fighters. Errol is going to stand more and try and break you down with body shots and stand in the pocket. With Keith, he’s going to try and move and catch you in the middle of shots. So they have 2 completely different styles of boxing,” Crawford said.
The power difference between Thurman and Spence isn’t enough to base the winner of the fight on that alone. If Thurman punches a little harder than Spence, but he can’t take the punishment or he can’t stand in the pocket to use his power, then it’s a waste. Thurman can’t use his slight power advantage because he’s timid, and he doesn’t have the stamina or the chin to stand and fight with Spence. That means that Thurman will be seen running from Spence all fight long, and he’ll lose. It takes more than power to win at welterweight. You’ve got to possess heart, stamina and a chin. Thurman is unquestionably lacking in all of those areas. For that reason, his slight power advantage over Spence is a waste.
Crawford seems to believe that a fight between him and guys like Spence and Thurman will happen. I’m not sure that it will. Spence and Thurman are probably not going to agree to come fight on ESPN due to them fighting on Showtime. I don’t see Arum letting Crawford fight on Showtime against Spence and Thurman. So, it’s probably going to play out just like we saw with Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the Top Rank promoted Pacquiao with a fight between them not taking place until they’re near the end of their careers. What we don’t know is if Top Rank’s way of doing business will change once Arum is no longer at the helm. He’s currently 86, so he might not be at the helm of Top Rank by the time Crawford is getting old and gray. If Arum chooses not to do business with PBC for fights between Crawford, Thurman and Spence, then those fights will have to wait until he’d no longer running Top Rank. I do think Crawford will end up fighting Spence and Thurman one of these days, but it might be another 5 to 7 years, and I think it won’t happen until Arum is not in charge anymore. I just don’t see Arum doing business with PBC chief Al Haymon. I hope I’m wrong, because I’d like to see Crawford fight Spence, Thurman and Porter. I think it’s going to take a changing of the guard at Top Rank before those fights get made.
“Of course, Bob rum has said many times there’s nothing stopping us from working with PBC fighters,” Crawford said in answer to a question of whether he thinks he’ll ever get a fight with Thurman and Spence. “If you can recall, Felix Diaz and John Molina were PBC fighters, and I fought both of them. I don’t think there’s nothing stopping us from getting those fights done. It’s just going to have to make sense for both sides of the party. They’re [Premier Boxing Champions] not going to want to send one of their A-side fighters over to ESPN if the deal’s not right, if it don’t make sense and vice versa. Bob isn’t going to want to send me over to Showtime if it doesn’t make sense. It’s got to be an even playing field,” Crawford said.
Crawford doesn’t realize that there’s a big difference between PBC letting Molina and Felix Diaz fight Top Rank fighters than letting their best A-side fighters like Spence, Porter and Thurman fight them on ESPN. It’s too bad Crawford can’t tell the difference.
“I’m his mandatory, so we got to fight,” Crawford said about Jeff Horn. “April 14th in New York at Madison Square Garden.”
Crawford will be fighting WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn next on April 14 on ESPN at Madison Square Garden in New York. Horn is a Top Rank fighter like Crawford.