Crawford is the best ever.

Phil, have you ever boxed?

 

Come on now, surely you know the Invincibles of 2003/04 are widely seen as the greatest Premier League side ever. All that talk about Man United’s 1998/99 Treble winners, Man City’s 2017/18 Centurions, City’s 2022/23 Treble side, or even Mourinho’s Chelsea being the best is just noise — and worse than listening to Anthony Fowler go on about the cure-all benefits of CBD.

 

Well Terry Marsh could be a bit hit or miss, mate — just ask Fish Eyes.

 

Lomachenko in the amateurs.

Go for it mate.

 

I think Phil may have boxed kippers….not sure about lacing them up though.

Could you imagine being stuck in a lift with him? Geez

 

Not speaking for Phil here, but amateurs are almost a different sport, mate.

Breland was Loma-level in the vest and headgear, 110–1 and an Olympic hero, but as a pro Starling, Davis and Vaca found the holes. Same story with Audley and Khan — Olympic heroes, but only AJ made it work properly in the paid ranks… and he was last seen crawling around the canvas, having already been humbled by a guy last seen at Taco Bell.

 

Am I a child?

Read your original post

 

Anyone can find flaws in any boxer, but what has Crawford done to be the best ever in your eyes ? He’s not the only boxer that’s never lost.

By your criteria we can only look at undefeated boxers when discussing who’s the best? So Robinson, Ali, Duran, and so forth are discounted ?

 

Any idea of how much of an idiot you sound like. Anyone can be negative about anything, at any time, it’s the easiest thing to do in life, but the fact that you seem to be using it about yourself as a positive is embarrassing.

Go and have a weewee sitting down.

 

Only AJ made it work properly, what are you talking about?

Ray Leonard, Oscar, Usyk, Lennox, Ali, Foreman and hundreds of other boxers all did ok in both disciplines if i remember correctly, mate!

Go and have a pint with Phil. Just let us know where you go so the rest of us can stay well clear.

 

Bro, I was just giving Phil a leg up — he started the thread, you lot piled in. I was talking about the modern UK Olympic hype train in reference to AJ. Thought that was obvious, but apparently not.

Nice deflection, though — Fowleresque.

 

Some of the takes on this site about Crawford being the best ever because he has beat one genuine great fighter in Canelo are mad.


Let's start with the weight. Yes, Crawford essentially jumped from WW to SMW after having just one fight at LMW. On paper, this is a phenomenal achievement. In reality, whilst a very good achievement, it isn't as great as it appears. Bud is a huge WW. He has always been huge for every weight division he fights in. He weighed 165 on the night against Spence, 170 against Madrimov, and 175 against Canelo. Fight night weights are more important than weigh in weights. Bud is one of those fighters who can boil down very low from his walk around weight, and then pack a lot of weight on after the weigh in. Just looking at Crawford and Canelo in the ring together showed that there isn't a world of difference in size between the two. Add in the fact that Bud is taller with a longer reach, and fights in a style that relies on reach, then this isn't some otherworldly achievement. Don't get me wrong; it's impressive. Especially when you consider that Bud isn't used to taking shots of someone Canelo’s size, but I think what Usyk did is more impressive size wise.


As for Canelo, he is nowhere near the fighter he used to be. His work rate and gas tank is not good enough these days. He was never a huge output fighter, but his work rate the past several years is poor. Over his last 8 fights he has averaged approximately 35 punches thrown per round. His ability to cut the ring off is not the same because of his depleted stamina, particularly after the half way point of a fight. He is very much a low output plodder these days.


His style has also changed. In his prime, Canelo was a supreme counter puncher with good head movement and he threw crisp combinations. His feinting was also top notch. He had so much subtlety to his game that made it hard for opponents to deal with.These days, he is pretty much a single shot power puncher who occasionally throws 2 punch combinations. He loads up on his shots with very little of the nuance and crafty feints he used to use. His upper body movement isn't what it used to be, either. He is predominantly a high guard fighter with little head movement compared to a few years back, and with very few counters thrown. These days he is essentially a more refined Arthur Abraham or Marco Huck; he is either defending exclusively or attacking exclusively with no smooth transition between the two that he had in his pomp.

I don't want to seem like I am putting Crawford down. He is a truly terrific fighter, and it was a good win against this version of Canelo. But, let's keep things in perspective. Over the weekend we watched a great fighter beat a slightly bigger faded great fighter. What we didn't watch was the second coming of Sugar Ray Robinson.

 

Good post mate, I agree with a lot of what you said about Canelo. But I think Crawford is also way past his peak too. If you go back to some of his fights around 2017, you can see how sharp his skillset was. Sure, the competition wasn’t elite, but Bud’s ability was. The real shame is that we never got to see him against true elite opposition during his absolute prime.