How will it be remembered when he's finished? There's no question he's a future hall of famer. IMO He's the number 1 Pound for Pound King and has been for some time. 100 an all time great. Who would he be compared with from the past greats of the sport? In my opinion I have him as an all time top 10 in the history of the sport during my time watching. He's never lost, has incredible ring I.Q and can switch hit. He destroys everyone in his path. What I like about Bud is he's extremely humble and a true gentlemen. But when it's time to care of business and be a killer, he does just that. On my top 10 list for sure.
Definitely passes the eye test, but level of opposition. Makes it difficult for me to put him on the 100 best of all time.
If he were to retire now, he'd retire as the one of the best of his era but his lack of quality opposition is really what damages his standing as and ATG. His best win, even if we take that over a Spence at his best is basically a Kell Brook level opponent who got over hyped, a good win for sure but compared to say Duran beating Leonard, Leonard beating Hearns or Pacquiao's run at 147 it really doesn't stand out at all. But he hasn't retired, may win titles at 154 and might even aim higher at Canelo. So impossible to say what his legacy is, as he isn't done yet.
Let’s hope that he stays around a little longer and gets some huge fights. Like others have said, it’s impossible to rate him really high under traditional ranking criteria, as his resume is weak.
He still needs to fight the best guys. Beating them mythical in the eyes of his fans isn’t what gives someone a great legacy. It is being active and building a stacked resume.
Excellent fighter and one of the best fighters of his generation but due to the geographical location he was lucky enough to be born in he'll be remembered higher than he should be for a fighter with his resume should be and for one who has fought so few punchers. It's much easier to be ''dominant'' when you're fighting the level of opposition he's fought, have often been the bigger man, rarely the smaller one, extremely rarely the much smaller one, have sans once in 40 fights have fought exclusively in your backyard/country, and have fought so few punchers, especially ones your size. Spence is by far his best win and the amount of praise he received for beating him is like he just beat a prime Duran or SRR despite the fact Spence has always been very overrated and he himself forged a career cleaning out 147 of its career 140s or blown up 135 Mikey, barely fought any legit punchers, again ones especially his size, and has only beaten two career 147 pounder world champions in his entire career and he struggled badly against both and with the exception of two times, one of which was on neutral soil, fought exclusively out of his home country, like Crawford, with home country refs and judges the vast majority of the time or almost all the time. Crawford beat P4P#5 ranked Spence ergo = greatness. Except Spence should never have been ranked P4P top 5 in a million years. FTR, I think Crawford is an excellent fighter and I've had him top 3 P4P for a long time but by the same token I also don't give him a free pass for the aforementioned or pretend like he's doing or done things he hasn't.
Totally agree with everything here except his best win being Spence, all things considered his best win is Postol. Regardless his resume is lacking in fit prime top tier fighters. But I do actually have him at #1 P4P and think he would easily dispatch Charlo at 154 helping his resume on paper.
Yeah, you can make a good case for Postol being his best win too. Spence is widely regarded as his best though. I think he should be ranked P4P #3 and one of reasons why is because he was gigantic for 135, very big for 140, and even up at 147 in his third weight he's big for the weight. So when he moves up he's often been the much bigger or at least bigger man, rarely the smaller one, and very rarely much smaller. At 147 he's fighting guys who are roughly his own size, has never been at a reach disadvantage in any of his world title fights, and has barely fought any legit punchers let alone KO artists and on one of the extremely rare occasions he did he got dropped. Yeah, he could beat Jermello and that would help with his legacy but I don't rate him that highly either. He's good but not top 10 P4P material IMO and he too has benefited from being huge for the weight and fighting exclusively at home. I would consider Super Boots a much more difficult assignment for Crawford even though Jermello is obviously a lot more accomplished. Jermello can punch though and it would be another of the extremely rare occasions where Crawford would be facing a legit banger who can match him for size if not them being a bit bigger.
Great summary! Bud always passes the eye test, but his resume is not that great - and it shows if he is really thinking he can fight at 154/160 or even god forbid 168 for a crack at Canelo, he was doing what Haney is doing now and making use of the cut to clean out 135/140, beating guys that are a good bit smaller (Bud walks around at 180 by all accounts!) That said, he is a spiteful finisher and does things in the ring that not many can (some beautiful work in dropping Porter the first time). He could still elevate his legacy depending on what he does from here on out - but not sure Charlo's or even Canelo will fancy him
Who is Terence Crawford? In the same way Who is Andre Ward? Who is Timothy Bradley? Can I imagine Duran, Leonard or Hagler on twitter boasting about bieng on an imaginary list. No they'd be out there and smashing legit opponents up the joint and stealing their lollipops. Which Crawford could do but he has never done.
Thanks. Yeah, it's not like I'm arguing he doesn't necessarily possess the talent to actually warrant the praise and ranking he's received -- albeit if he had to run a murderer's row of legit bangers and savage KO artist like Usyk has I really don't think his chin could withstand it, especially more so whilst giving away the kind of huge physical advantages up at HW which Crawford has never come remotely close to doing and fighting exclusively on the road or in his opponent's backyards -- but you have to prove it in the ring first and his resume is just weak for a 40 fight vet and top 5 P4P star.
