By Huck Allen: Terence Crawford is hinting that he should be moved to the #1 pound-for-pound spot following previous #1 Canelo Alvarez’s embarrassing loss to Dmitry Bivol last Saturday night in Las Vegas.
The unbeaten WBO welterweight champion Crawford is currently #3 in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound rankings behind unified heavyweight champion #2 Oleksandr Usyk.
It’s difficult to argue a case for Crawford (38-0, 29 KOs) to be placed ahead of Usyk at #1 in the pound-for-pound rankings without any career-defining victories on his resume.
The best name on the 34-year-old Crawford’s 14-year resume is Shawn Porter, who is little more than a faded gatekeeper by the time the Omaha, Nebraska native beat him last November.
In contrast, Usyk is coming off of an impressive 12-round unanimous decision over Anthony Joshua last November, a victory that sent shockwaves through the heavyweight division and the sport.
We know who #1 is now 🤷🏿♂️
— Terence Crawford (@terencecrawford) May 8, 2022
As great as Crawford’s victory was over the 33-year-old Porter, it doesn’t compare to what Usyk did with his win over Joshua.
What Crawford needs to take the #1 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings is a victory over IBF/WBA/WBC welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr.
Obviously, Crawford would greatly prefer that he be moved to the #1 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings because it would likely help him negotiate a more significant split.
Without Crawford holding the #1 spot in the pound-for-pound list, he’s in a challenging position in negotiating with the three-belt champion Spence.
Without that #1 spot, Crawford doesn’t have much going for him because his win over the faded Porter isn’t significant enough, snd his other victories over the shopworn 35-year-old British fighters Amir Khan and Kell Brook don’t hold much value.
It’s more likely that Usyk (19-0, 13 KOs) will be moved to the #1 spot in the pound-for-pound rankings, whereas Crawford will remain frozen at #3.
Bivol deserves to be moved to the pound-for-pound list with his one-sided victory over Canelo, as he now has a big name on his resume. What will be interesting is to see how far Canelo falls on the list. Does he drop out of the top 10 altogether?
It’s fair to say that Bivol deserves to be moved into the #8 spot in place of Josh Taylor because the Scottish fighter is coming off a controversial win that many fans felt was a loss to Jack Catterall.
Spence holds more titles than Crawford with his one title, but he’s also proven himself as a pay-per-view attraction and a fighter that brings in huge crowds in Texas in his stadium fights.
“I don’t know. It’s a huge fight,” said Eddie Hearn to iFL TV when asked where the Canelo vs. Bivol rematch will occur.
“Everybody in boxing knew how tough the fight was, but the casual fan felt, ‘It’s Canelo; he always wins.
“So the rematch is a 50-50 fight, or maybe you even favor Bivol, and so it’s a huge fight. We’ll have to see where that takes place,” said Hearn.
