Crawford's ATG ranking: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Odd how a thread like this hasn't been made yet, where Bud's specific historical ranking is assessed. So far it's mostly been direct comparisons to Floyd. So yeah, where does he belong historically ? I'll give my take, and then we can all discuss it.

THE UGLY = Opposition

This is where Bud gets most flack. "He hasn't beaten anyone, It's just Canelo and Spence". Well not quite that bad, but the spirit of it is right.

135:

His first win over a ranked fighter at LW was the #3 ranked Ricky Burns. Bud, alongside many of his current era contemporaries like Usyk and Loma, got given a title shot without having beaten a single ranked fighter beforehand. Not a bad thing on its own, but he's not beating the allegations with this, especially if said LW era is one of the worst ever. No hidden great win to be found here.

Burns is as pedestrian as they come. You wouldn't even mention him if he was on Carlos Ortiz's resume. Only 5 of Burns' career wins were over top 10 ranked Boxers. Doesn't sound too bad until you learn 2 of them came from 130 in Nicky Crook (a former 126er) and Roman Martinez (known for losing to Loma, Gamboa and only beating Salido). Then at 135 where he fought Bud ? A shopworn Katsidis, Kevin Mitchell (who never beat anyone), and Paulus Moses whose only good win is an 130 lber, Cassius Baloyi. Burns did win a strap at 140 later, but it was a vacant belt won by defeating another unranked fighter. It's ugly.

Then we've got Yuriorkis Gamboa, one of Bud's top 5 wins. Known for being an underachiever, but he was a good, solid fighter. Wins over Salido, Solis, De Leon and later Sosa and Martinez. He got some stuff done. But, and this is a big but, he was far from an elite Lightweight. He was a Featherweight. After the Leon win, he moved up to 130 to get an interim belt by beating the unranked Farenas, and then immediately moved up to Lightweight for yet another interim title by beating the unranked Perez. He hadn't even proved himself at 130 vs a world class fighter, let alone at 135 where he fought Bud. It's why he wasn't ranked at the weight.

So how did Gamboa rebound at 135 after Bud beat him black and blue ? He didn't. He got stopped in 7 by the unranked Robinson Castellanos, and then more famously by Tank, Haney and Cruz when he was old. And even then, at 130 he only managed to prove himself with a SD win vs Sosa and then Martinez. And let's be honest, they're nothing fighters. I've said that when talking about Loma's wins over them as well.

Crawford then beat the #2 ranked Raymundo Beltran to become the lineal LW champion, prior to leaving the division for good. And Beltran is also just not that good. He got punked with that draw vs Burns, but c'mon, it's Ricky Burns. He has nothing else going for him, aside from that win over Paulus Moses when both of them were past it, I guess. He was there for a brief moment in time and disappeared just as quickly.

140:

We're starting off with a win over the #10 rated Thomas Dulorme for a vacant WBO strap......Yeah, **** that. Dulorme's only win over a fighter that was ever ranked in his life is over Demarcus Corley. The one that was already reduced to a journeyman who was losing to everyone who owned a pair of gloves.

Then Dierry Jean, who was unranked. Then Hank Lundy, who was also unranked. Then it's the #1 rated Viktor Postol. Finally some good ****in...

is what I'd say if Postol didn't only have 2 wins worth ****. One being Selcuk Aydin, whose sole win over a (formerly) rated fighter is the 39-20 Demarcus Corley. In fact, Postol fought also Corley right before Aydin, making Corley one of Postol's 3 wins over opponents who were ever rated in their life. The remaining fighter being Postol's best win, the ATG known as Lucas Matthhyse. The same Matthyse who lost to all his best opponents, a washed Zab Judah (who even loses to Judah ?), Dexon Alexander, Danny Garcia etc. The same Matthyse whose 2 best wins are Lamont Peterson and Ruslan Provodnikov.

So which great fighters did Crawford fight after Postol ? John Molina of course! Who after doing jack his whole career, managed to beat Ruslan Provodkinov. And how good is Provodnikov ? So great that his 2 best wins are Jose Luis Castillo in Castillo's very last fight, and Mike Alvardo, whose only win vs a ranked fighter is Brandon Rios, in the rematch of a trilogy he would lose. That's it.

Then Crawford beat the unranked Felix Diaz. Then the #7 rated Julius Indongo. He held the IBF and WBA titles, so he must have been really good right ? Nah, there's a reason a unified champ is ranked 7th by the ring. And it's that he only has 2 wins over rated fighters, the ones he got his titles from. The first one being Ricky burns, who if you recall has actually never beaten anyone ranked at 140 and got his WBA belt via vacancy politics. The other being Eduard Troyanovsky, whom he impressively KO'd in 1 to get the IBF title. But Eduard himself got it from Cesar Cuenca, who was so highly thought of that despite holding one of the 4 belts, was never top 10 ranked by The Ring.

147:

Jeff Horn (#8): It's Horn. Got a gift vs old Pac, then lost to Bud, then lost to the mediocre Zerafa before scraping by for an MD win revenge, then he got stopped by Tim Tzyu. His only non controversial and somewhat noteworthy win is that KO1 over the ghost of Mundine.

Jose Benavidez Jr: lol

Amir Khan (unranked at the time): Beyond washed. Even by Canelo, he had a whole TV stint in 2017. He was having his Jack Johnson tour after the Jeffries bout by the time Bud got to him.

Egidijus Kavaliauskas (#7): His only noteworthy win is David Avanesyan who was still at the domestic level. Paper thin.

Kell Brook (unranked): Basically as washed as Khan, though technically a bit better since he beat Khan for his final fight 2 years later. The only fight he had after Crawford, btw.

Shawn Porter (#5): Basically Gamboa if he actually belonged in the same division as Crawford. Wins over Ugas, Garcia, Broner Berto, Alexander make for a solid overall resume. Not HoF worthy, but probably Bud's 3rd best win.

David Avanesyan (#7): A mid level fighter, his best win is the domestic level Josh Kelly. Only thing he's got besides Kelly is 45 year old Mosley in his last fight. His loss to Lamont Peterson doesn't excite me either, as he has never really shown himself to be world class.

Errol Spence jr (#1): This is the big one. Spence has been up to this point the best opponent Bud has beaten. He was P4P top 5 at the time, and had beaten Shawn Porter, Mickey Garcia, Danny Garcia, Kell Brook, Yordenis Ugas and Lamont Peterson to solidfy his claim as the best Welterweight in the world by that point. But, there's the car crash.

Now, do I think the crash took something out of Spence ? Yes. It was a brutal and potentially life threatening crash that guarantees an athlete's career will never be the same. But, do I think he was some zombie that was dragged out of bed as some have made him out to be ? No. It would simply be baffling to me that actual professionals would clear Spence to fight if his health was in such genuine danger. He did look odd in his next fights, but he won in the end. No matter how you look at it, he was the best Welterweight in the world aside from Bud. He was beaten easily.

154:

Madrimov. He was thought of as perhaps the best in the world at the time. It's clear now that he isn't after he lost to Bud and Vergil Ortiz back to back. And no matter how you slice it, he's just plain unproven. Sorry but a win over Michel Soro and Murgamov does not make you elite. He has promise, but he has done absolutely nothing to prove his quality as a fighter. Giving Crawford a tough fight in a divison he had just entered for the first time, in his 2nd to last fight at 37 years old means nothing to me. Neither does stinking the joint vs Ortiz. I was with my mates at the time, waiting to see Bivol vs Beterbiev 2, and we had ordered burgers to munch on, waiting for Shakur's fight to be over. Turns out we ended up eating them for Madrimov vs Ortiz instead.

168:

And now the ginger man himself, Canelo. Far and away the best fighter Bud has faced and beaten historically. He holds wins over GGG, Jacobs, Cotto, Lara, Khan, Kovalev, Smith(s), Plant, Saunders, Chavez jr, Charlo, Trout and Mosley, throughout varying points in their careers. 4 division champion, and has been world class for nearly 12 years now. In fact, he was P4P top 10 for ten years straight.

He's also been been a pro for 20 years, and has 68 fights under his belt, which is a lot for the modern era. Lots of wear and tear. Really, he was never the same after Bivol beat him in 2021, with all his next 6 fights going the distance vs fighters that really shouldn't be surviving him. Worst of all was the Scull fight, where he almost like Tyson did vs Jake Paul.

But let us not forget the size difference here. Crawford while a huge weight cutter, was still a Welterweight since 2018 who moved up 2 divisions and 21 lbs to face Canelo. It was even clear in the Madrimov fight, that perhaps Bud was starting to feel the size difference. And while he did bulk up for Canelo and looked near the same size, it felt artificial. Simply put, I don't feel as if ginger can ever move down again. Bud could. And while Canelo is older in terms of Boxing years, Bud is still the older man by 3 years. And while you can point out to the Scull performance, it's clear to me that Canelo took that fight lightly and came in much better form vs Crawford. Still not a prime Canelo, but there were glimpses.

Moving up as he did at 38, and beating arguably the greatest fighter of the post MayPac era, even if past it, is very great.

Overall: Yeah, it is bad. It's not just Canelo and Spence, but it's not far from it. His top wins are Canelo, Spence, Porter, Postol and Gamboa. Not the worst thing in the world, but SRL's wins over the Fab 4, it is not.

 

THE GOOD = Other achievements

And now, the stuff that does not have to do with opposition. The rest of his achievements.

First of all, he's the only 3 division undisputed champion in the 4 belt era. That's huge, more so than you think. He was the first undisputed champion in 2 divisions too, at 140 and 147, but Usyk and Inoue caught up and did the same with CW-HW and 118-122. So he said "**** you" to both of them, moved up to 154 for 1 strap, skipped 160 entirely, and beat the face of Boxing for 3 time undisputed glory.

Usyk has reached his ceiling with HW so there's no way he manages x3 undisputed, and I doubt Inoue manages to unify all of 126 either (possible, but doubtful, he's 4 months away from 33 and probably starting to decline). Bud might very well remain the only one. Almost certainly the only one who skipped unifying the 2 divisions (or even skipped in competing in one of them) above his best one, and unified the one above them instead.

Also, he's the only former Lightweight champion to become Super Middleweight champion. The only one. Duran and Oscar became champs at 160 by beating Barkley and Sturm respectively, the only Lightweights to do so. Crawford took it a step further and became Super Middleweight champ (and again, while skipping 160 entirely), not against some title holder who was there for a moment like Barkley or Sturm, but against THE man at Super Middleweight, one of the top 5 or so ever at the weight (it's a tweener division to be fair, but still). In a way, he has rendered both Duran and Oscar obsolete.

Oh yeah, and he's one of the 6 men to ever become champions in 5 divisions. Alongside Pacquiao, Oscar, Floyd, Leonard and Hearns. And unlike Leonard who basically cheated in doing it, by gaining both the 168 and 175 titles in one fight, Crawford skipped 160 entirely. That is nuts, no matter how you look at it.

THE BAD: The actual journey to undisputed

There is one downside to this whole thing. And it's that Bud's actual journey to undisputed glory was easy and lacked all around challenge. 140 was terrible and empty. He had to beat the #10 rated Dulorme for a vacant WBO belt, and had to beat the #7 Indongo (who also sucks) for the WBA and IBF belts. Postol was a good fighter, but he was far from great, certainly not on the level to make the 140 run worth it. He had to beat 1 good fighter for the WBC belt and 2 bad ones for the rest of the belts.

Then at 147, he only had to beat Horn for the WBO belt, then just waited for Spence to do all the hard work (beating Porter, Brook and Ugas for the WBC, WBA and IBF belts) before fighting him. The Spence win is impressive, but the actual journey to gaining all the belts wasn't. And obviously at 168, he only had to beat Canelo for all the belts. 3 time undisputed glory is great, but it came easy to him. He had to beat 5 people for it. 2 of them sucked, 1 was simply solid, and only 2 of them were the real deal. It's also why I don't give him too many points for undefeated compared to say, Marciano or Mayweather, who had to work for it more.

So, where does he rank ?