By Chris Williams: Terence Crawford posted a reminder to his fans today that he won his first world title exactly seven years ago on March 1st, 2014 when he captured the WBO lightweight belt against Ricky Burns in Glasgow, Scotland.
Crawford’s career world title wins:
- Jeff Horn – WBO 147 lbs
- Julius Indongo – IBF/WBA 140 lbs
- Viktor Postol – WBC 140
- Thomas Dulorme – WBO 140
It’s great that Crawford has won world titles in his career in three weight divisions, but the fact of the matter is, the guys that he beat are fighters that pretty much any top 140 or 147-pound guy would beat. Am I wrong?
The resume just isn’t there for Crawford, and that’s why a lot of fans feel that he’s not worthy of the #1 pound-for-pound. If you look at Crawford’s resume, it’s barren of talent from top to bottom.
The one fighter Crawford could fight to give him some credibility, Shawn Porter, he wants no part of.
For example, if you took Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, and Danny Garcia and asked them to fight the opposition that Crawford fought to win his world titles, they would have beaten all of those guys with ease. So, what does that say about Crawford?
Since then, Crawford (37-0, 28 KOs) has been a world champion for seven years straight, which is an accomplishment, but he still hasn’t fought a career-defining fight.
Crawford still in search of a mega-fight
Despite his success, Crawford, 33, is no closer to getting a mega-fight against Errol Spence Jr or Manny Pacquiao than he was years ago. Crawford’s promoter Bob Arum recently told the media that Terence has Pacquiao and Shawn Porter as two of his options.
Arum says Crawford prefers the fight with Pacquiao (62-7-2 39 KOs), and talks of the possibility of one a huge site fee offer, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.
The one fight that Crawford does have a realistic chance of making is Porter (31-3-1, 7 KOs), but for some reason, neither he nor Arum seems excited about making that fight.
Chris Williams has a good idea why Crawford and Arum don’t fancy the Porter fight. The reason is simple. Porter is all wrong for Crawford with his smothering style of fighting, and if he takes the match, he’ll his first career defeat. Arum has got to know that, which is why he hasn’t made Porter a large offer for him to face Crawford.
Look at it this way. If Crawford takes the fight with Porter, he’ll probably lose. When that happens, he’ll no longer be a world champion, and all the fluff stuff about Crawford being one of the pound-for-pound fighters will be gone.
Why is Crawford reluctant to fight Porter?
What it really comes down to is Crawford would rather take on Spence, Pacquiao, or one of the top 154-pound fighters because when he loses, there won’t be as much of a loss for him in comparison if he gets beaten by Porter.
Losing to Porter would be a MAJOR blow to Crawford’s career, and it’s not likely that he would ever be able to recover from the defeat.
In contrast, if Crawford gets beaten by Spence, Pacquiao, or newly crowned WBO 154-pound champion Brian Castano, he’s going to have a built-in excuse. Those are guys that Crawford is expected to lose to, so it won’t be a big deal when he gets beat.
Won my first title on this day 7 years ago who else in boxing can say they been a champ for 7 straight years 💪🏿💪🏿
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) March 1, 2021