With negotiations currently underway for him to face Kell Brook next I couldn't help but feel disappointed. It lead me to think why are we getting the number one pound 4 pound boxer against another faded former champ? I honestly forgot that Brook was still an active fighter. I immediately checked all of the sanctioning bodies divisional top 10 rankings and Brook couldn't be found on any of them. I checked Ring magazine's and ESPN's rankings and stumbled on something interesting. Ring Magazine's divisional ranking at welterweight are as follows: Spence, Crawford, Pacquiao, Thurman, Porter, Garcia, Ugas, Abdukakhorov, Lipinets, and Mikey. Abdukakhorov and Lipinets are scheduled to face each other in October, with that being said every boxer has faced at least 1 person in the current top 10 rankings EXCEPT for one boxer. ESPN's rankings were similar: Spence, Pacquiao, Crawford, Porter, Thurman, Garcia, Ugas, Ortiz jr., James, and Lipinets. And basically the same results with the exception of Ortiz who's basically still a prospect. So my question is why is Crawford's welterweight opponent selection so consistently underwhelming and when is he going to test himself against one of his top 5 or 10 counterparts?
He can’t test himself against the better counterparts due to politics. Al Haymon of PBC controls Spence, Pac while Top Rank has Crawford. Crawford got a sweet deal to resign with Top Rank but it has cost him his best years as without PBC he will continue to fight bums in Omaha and faded guys who are trying to remain relevant. Shame.
It’s one thing to blame politics but it doesn’t help when he and his trainer come out and says he’s not interested in those guys outside of Spence and Pac.. Like it would mean so much more to decisively defeat Shawn Porter(which has never been done) when your counterpart had a very close fight with him.. But he’ll rather go for Brook whom hasn’t made 147 in 3 years and obviously shot.. At some point he himself have to make some transgressions for the sake of his legacy which doesn’t look really good no matter what the writers try to sell to the public..
