Crawford offered

When has Crawford ever look for the easy win? Realistically. He's always went after who was considered the best in the division. Went to 147 calling out Keith Thurman & Errol Spence Jr., went to 154 calling out Jermell Charlo. Jumped to 168 looking for Canelo........Crawford has stated that he wants to walk away on his own terms, not let the sport retire him. If he's looking to compete at 160.....I highly doubt he's looking for what would be considered a "guaranteed" win.

It's weird that so many broke fans consistently talk about the finances of these fighters as if you are financially invested in them. Crawford has repeatedly said that he fights for legacy, but goofy people keep talking about what would be a good payday for him. Do any of y'all read Forbes and see what that man is actually worth. He's far from "in need of a big payday" status.

 

Is Janibek another Madrimov type of over rated for simply being former Soviet Bloc?

 

Undisputed 3 division world champion?

 

I think on the one hand usyk wanted those fights because he had to adapt to the weight - he wouldn't look like that against the chisora from then at this point. And on the other hand it was a voluntary defense from joshua, no?

I don't get the mindset either. A boxing fan should always argue for fighters to take meaningful fights instead of treating them like role playing avatars and hope for them to make a maximum amount of points (money and fame in this case). He didn't actually say he wanted crawford to do that, but dwelling on the general mindset that might guide such considerations is foreign to me, too.

I get it a little bit with usyk, since he is eastern european and they usually get undersold and mostly americans take every chance to put one of their own on top, so it would be nice to have an EE goat. But even so I don't hope for him to retire because that preserves his zero losses. The only reason one could have to hope for him to retire is that it might put a little more live into heavyweight when all compete for the titles. Maybe.

 

To me that's way more a Canelo problem than a Crawford Problem. Canelo had years to fight benavidez and wiggled out of it every way he could ('don't fight mexicans' - except munguia who is more mexican than benavidez).
Canelo fought ryder... So crawford was just another of his picks. It's not like Crawford could have forced canelo to fight him or lose a belt. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty sure that the alphabet organisations only call out mandatories for the cash cows, when the cash cows have already agreed to the matchup behind doors. How often does a big name have to take on an absolute noname that is really good or otherwise lose the belt?

But i see the general point. I too think that boxing focusses too much on the champions and too little on the challengers. Champions bring more money after all.

 

If there was a fixed fee for all fights with the belt and there was no way for the alphabet organisations to profit off cash cow fighters - we might have some part of boxing fixed...

 

It doesn't get you an immediate shot, it makes you qualified to get a shot. NO ONE has ever suggested that Crawford was priority one for that fight..... But it's not CRAWFORD's fault that Canelo wasn't interested or was reluctant to fight the other qualified match ups. Crawford went after the fight and he got it. Bivol & Benavidez fans got to crying and tried to discredit the match up as much as they could. Benavidez himself picked Canelo to win stating there was weight classes for a reason. Afterwards, Benavidez tried to discredit the accomplishment suggesting that Canelo was a shell of himself....... Then why was Benavidez pushing so hard to fight Canelo only to say that he has move passed the match up when he hears that Crawford would potentially get the fight.....lol

It was advertised as a generational fight once the talks were in process and the fight officially announced. The match up was worthy of happening because you had THE TWO most decorated active fighters facing each other. Good on Good. Skill vs Skill. Both's legacy was on the line.

Too many people crying about the fight as if Crawford didn't deserve that opportunity. If anyone deserved it, it was Crawford who literally crawled up from the bottom of the sport to earn every accolade he has. He didn't come in with an elite amateur career. Didn't have the Olympic pedigree. Wasn't signed to a well established promotional company. He grinded and put his boots on the ground to earn everything. It took him going into a world champion's camp for sparring (by himself, no coach) and allegedly dismantling that champion in multiple sparring sessions to get an eye on his potential on the big stage. That champion was Tim Bradley, which is why Tim always talks so highly of Crawford. It was Bradley who brought Crawford up to Bob Arum to get him signed by Top Rank.

Guarantee that if Canelo didn't strategically try to pick and choose who he fights within his own division throughout his career, this conversation about Crawford getting an opportunity would not exist. Crawford deserved this fight as much as Canelo deserved the Mayweather fight.

 

I think it’d be a boring clash of styles, with Janibek winning based on youth and size.

 

Janibek isn't beating Crawford. Youth and size is not enough and Crawford has proven that repeatedly. It's like y'all refused to get creative with the standards you use to claim someone is better than Crawford.

Then with the same energy, y'all create excuses for why Crawford did what he did to them.

 

So Bud - GGG has petered out ?

 

Janibek hasn't beaten anyone of note for him to be favored against a quality fighter like Crawford. A 42 year old Erislandy Lara is considered his best opponent to date and even then we don't even know how Janibek would look against him.