By Chris Williams: Floyd Mayweather Jr. paid unbeaten former undisputed light welterweight champion Terence Crawford a huge compliment this week by saying he should be the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing, and that he’s like a ‘young Floyd.’ It is a tremendous compliment that Mayweather is paying to the 30-year-old Crawford (32-0, 23 KOs), given that his opponents to date is Viktor Postol, Yuriorkis Gamboa and Julius Indongo. Those are not fighters you can throw into the ring with the top welterweights like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter and expect them to win.
Picking Crawford over Errol Spence would be difficult for me to do. Crawford’s wins in his career aren’t good enough to have him at the top of my own pound-for-pound list. Of course, I’m not a promoter like Mayweather. Having Crawford sign with him one of these days would be a terrific addition to the Mayweather Promotions stable, as long as he’s still relatively in his prime by the time his contract with Top Rank ends one of these days.
Right now, you can’t say that Crawford has done enough to be rated as the No.1 fighter pound-for-pound in the sport unless you consider guys like Postol, Gamboa and Indongo as pound-for-pound fighters too. I personally don’t rate those guys. Until Crawford shows that he can beat the likes of Thurman, Spence, Shawn Porter and Danny Garcia, I don’t see him as deserving of the top spot in pound for pound just yet. If Crawford’s promoters at Top Rank are unable to ever match him against any of those fighters, then I doubt that he’ll ever get to the No.1 spot. He won’t get there for beating Jeff Horn, that’s for sure.
“The pound-for-pound top fighter in boxing right now is Terence Crawford,” said Mayweather to Fighthype.com. ”He doesn’t have to be under my company to give a guy props. If he’s a free agent, I would love to work with him. I know what I can do to take him to that next level. He reminds me of a young Floyd Mayweather. He can fight his [expletive] off,” said Mayweather.
If Vasyl Lomachenko was more of a risk taker and willing to fight the best fighters at 130 to 147, I would rate him at No.1. I still think Lomachenko has done enough to be rated above Crawford.
Crawford is nothing like Mayweather. He doesn’t have the hand speed, the reflexes or the same offensive skills. Crawford’s style is completely different from Mayweather’s. Up until Crawford’s last fight against Indongo, he rarely stayed in the pocket for prolonged periods the way Mayweather did. Crawford has always been quick to move around the ring, even when facing weaker opposition.
Mayweather is a promoter at this point in his career. It obviously doesn’t hurt for Mayweather to say good things about Crawford. There might be a point in the future that Crawford could choose to leave Top Rank. I don’t know if Mayweather will be the one that Crawford chooses to sign with if he ever does leave Top Rank. The fact that Crawford is 30-years-old now, and still under contract with Top Rank suggests that he might not have too much time left in his career if he ever does choose to leave them.
