Should Crawford go to 160?

This a good idea .. win in another weight class for Bud

 

He could pick up a title from Adames or Lara, but if he did that, he’d get called out for deliberately swerving Janibek who is far and away the number one guy in the division. And I don’t care what anyone says, Janibek is too high risk for the level of reward he brings for any fighter, regardless of whether you think would win.

 

Maybe an undisputed run at 160 since its very doable and the weight class is practically a barren wasteland. A fight with Janibek Alimkhanuly is really the only credible fight at 160. Unless Boots, Ortiz, Murtazaliev, or Fundora agree to move up to challenge Crawford.

 

If he's not going to campaign at 168 or return to 154, middleweight is the only option unless he retires. Might as well go for Janibek and try to become unified champion against the consensus best in what is otherwise a wasteland of a division. Would absolutely love to see it as it presents a completely different stylistic challenge than Canelo did.

 

160 makes perfect sense. The chance to become champ at another weight class.

 

Why would Boots, Ortiz, Murtazaliev, or Fundora be a credible fight over Lara, Adames, Eubanks Jr, or Ammo...... I really don't see the consistency on this board on who y'all feel is a glorified win and who is a cherry pick. Boots and Ortiz have barely done anything their entire career and nothing at all at 154.....but they would be credible wins for Crawford at 160?

 

Credible as in name wise. Maybe legacy as well but I get what you mean considering the weight class difference. It's just a bummer that Crawford only had one fight at 154 and decided to jump up right away without facing the other top 154 that I mentioned. I'm just not too thrilled about the 160 division. Alimkhanuly is the only standout fighter in that weight class but even then he hasn't fought anyone of note. The only other fighter that's somewhat credible is Lara but he's also 42 years old and hasn't done anything other than knockout a washed up Danny Garcia.

 

Yea, but that's the thing. What makes Ennis and Ortiz credible name wise?
-Ennis's claim to fame is that "so many fighters" are avoiding him, only for us to find out that none of it is true. He even claimed Crawford was avoiding him until showed up to his city and checked him on Gillie's podcast about it. Boots' and his camp turned down 2 official offers to fight Crawford at 147 on top of that. Bozy, his father/trainer confirmed and gave the reason for turning down the fight being loyalty to Showtime......
-Vergil also not only turned down an opportunity to fight Crawford, but he was Crawford's mandatory for 2 years and would not exercise his mandatory to get a title shot. It's the reason why the WBO bumped him down and replaced him with Shawn Porter who eventually they had to mandate the bout in order for it to happen because Porter wasn't in any rush to fight Crawford either.

Neither of those 2 names are any more credible than the options Crawford would have at 160.

Fundora and Murtazaliev are title holders but far from any elite statuses themselves.
-Fundora's camp did everything they can not to begin negotiations with Crawford. Remember Crawford decided to go up to fight at 154 for the rematch of Errol Spence Jr. When Spence pulled out of the rematch clause, due to suspected surgery he had to partake in, Crawford set his sights on Tim Tszyu who held the WBC at the time. Tim was scheduled to fight Keith Thurman (another elite welterweight who avoided a Crawford match up), but Thurman got a bicep injury and had to pull out, thus Fundora stepped up and ended up beating Tim on the cards with Tim having that massive cut hindering his vision. Crawford was next up and said that he wanted the winner of that fight. Fundora's camp claimed he wouldn't be available for months as he had some undisclosed injury. But then when Crawford officially announced his Madrimov fight for the WBA, word got out that Fundora had been trying to negotiate a match up with Errol Spence Jr. Weird, the 2 individuals whom couldn't begin/continue negotiations with Crawford due to injury and/or surgery were negotiating with each other to fight the following month after Crawford's Madrimov bout.
-Murtazaliev was never in play really as he didn't open up to being an option for Crawford until after his TKO of Tim Tsyzu a couple months after Crawford beat Madrimov. By that time, Crawford was already discussing a Canelo match up behind doors with Turki.

As you pointed out, there are no sexy names at 160 at the moment that would make fans crave for a match up. Janibek in my opinion is the toughest option there as Lara is a elder statesmen, and Adames will get badly outclassed with his flaws he possess vs Crawford. Unless Crawford is looking to further distant himself from the rest of the field by becoming a 4 division undisputed champ, I wouldn't be too confident in seeing him continuing his career much longer. Selfishly I would love to still see him whoop on Jermell Charlo and/or Keith Thurman (though I think Thurman can sell a fight), but Crawford walking away from the sport is more than likely what is bound to happen.

In a perfect world, would love to see Crawford bring his final fight back home to Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, NE. Home of the Nebraska Cornhusker football team. That football, though they haven't been the dominant force they were back in the 90s, are currently sitting at a 400+ consecutive sellout streak (seating is like 90K). My ex-wife and daughter went to a volleyball game they had in the stadium a couple years ago and people showed up in droves to see 'volleyball' there. Imagine Crawford doing a farewell bout right there in his home state at one of the most iconic college stadiums in the nation. He already had their head coach Matt Rhule speak at his going away party according to the Netflix docuseries. And Coach Rhule was at the fight this weekend, which means he jumped on a plane right after their game. The team had just played that morning at 11am.

 

Yeah.. he gets 6 weight titles then and passes Floyd Mayweather

 

He's already passed him with Lineal titles, thus you have Sugar Shane, Canelo, Zab Judah, and others saying he may be better.

 

If no rematch with Canelo happens, Undisputed at 160 will most likely be on Crawfords Radar. A fight with Janibek would be a hell of a fight.

 

I would love to see him retire on top and he has nothing to prove.
People are going to be shocked when he is in the ring with a prime full fledged middleweight/super middleweight.

 

Is a Russia fight even feasible? I wonder how big Janibek support is in Kazakhstan? It would have to be big I right?, I mean he won a ****ing gold medal! The Janibek fight would intrigue me the most as a Crawford fan if he had to choose a fight but I would rather he retire on top and I feel thats most likely as of now but money talks.