Terence Crawford vs Felix Trinidad 147lbs primes

Tito versus a prime Spence might not even be that sure of a thing (not that Terence has a claim to a win over prime Spence, himself). To me, Tito was always a great, but limited fighter who struggled mightily to make 147. I agree that his best performances were above welterweight; his outings against Vargas and Reid, in particular, are what I consider his prime.

I wouldn't favor anyone as rigid as Tito to get the better of Crawford over 12. He might get beat up some, but Crawford should win.

 

Going with Tito,some posts here seem to be underating his power.

 

The majority scored Trinidad's fight with ODLH to Oscar. That "win" aside Trinidad never beat a Ring top 5 ranked WW. He was dominant against his other WW competition though, including #6 ranked Oba Carr (aside from the KD in the 2nd).

With stoppage wins over Spence and Porter, Crawford has more and clearer wins over top 5 ranked WWs than Trinidad.

Gun to my head and I'd go for Crawford by close decision, with Trinidad having a very live punchers chance.

 

Trinidad

 

Because we haven’t really seen Crawford truly tested all that much, it’s hard to totally trust his chin in an exchange and he does like to stay in the pocket a little. A difference between Hopkins (of course besides being much bigger) and even Oscar, is that they employed a strategy where they used every inch of their reach and especially in the case of Oscar, his legs. That’s not really how Crawford fights so while he’s definitely a more rounded and versatile fighter, that stick and move, not allowing Tito to get set, that really wasn’t his style. So, I think based on what we know, I’ll take the naturally larger, stronger, taller Tito in a fight where I’m sure there will be exchanges.

Regarding Tito’s power. It’s visibly clear he hit hard and he was accurate and had great eyes. He didn’t waste much and he could come short or wide with his hook to devastating effect, plus had a great straight right hand, right cross, great body puncher and he had a mean uppercut. You could see this in how he was able to turn some fights around and end them as contests within the blink of an eye. I’ve spoken to people who’ve been hit by him and I’ll take their word for it, they say it’s different level and a totally different feel to what else they’ve faced.

 

Maurice Blocker was not ranked in top 5? I know He was moving back down in weight, but He was still reigning title holder.

 

Trinidad beat two top 5 ranked Welterweights Pernell Whitaker, ODLH. And Carr made the top 5 for 3 years after the Trinidad loss.

 

Apologies DP, I forgot about Whitaker, you're correct, Trinidad has 2 x wins over top 5 rated WWs, Whitaker and the disputed win over ODLH.

 

I've read from a reliable source that the only top 5 ranked WWs Trindad faced were ODLH and Whitaker, but I can't be certain Booker wasn't.

 

@Dynamicpuncher

How can you claim to argue in good faith including Pernell Whitaker in your list of Trinidad achievements? Either you’re disingenuous or completely ignorant of the circumstances. Which is it?

I should be able to include Trinidad’s fight with Roy Jones if the Whitaker fight is in the discussion.

 

Blocker was ranked #3, Campas was ranked #5 as well. 100%. Carr became top 5 after the Tito loss as well.

 

He beat Mayorga, did he? Who didn’t!?

Im not saying two different things, I’m further illustrating what I mean by elite puncher. That’s a guy with one punch knockout power, a freak like Hearns or Foreman, or Jackson or Liston. Trinidad was a powerful puncher & relied on it to win fights, but that is not elite material alone. Clearer?

 

Rest assured nobody has ever under-estimated anything about Felix Trinidad. Quite the opposite is the norm.

 

No I don't think Trinidad is a freak type puncher like Jackson but I would still class him as an elite puncher. The eye test of his power and statistics of his stoppages in world title fights at Welterweight cannot be denied.

To put it this way how many other Welterweights would you rank over Trinidad in regards to power ?

Hearns, Cuevas, SRR, are the obvious stand out candidates but then I wouldn't rank too many others above Trinidad.

 

Andrew Lewis,Fernando Vargas and Vernon Forrest.