Terrance Crawford beat; Won the Vacant WBO v 22-1 Thomas Dulorme Won the WBC v 28-0 v Viktor Postol Won the WBA & IBF v 22-0 Julius Indongo Also beat Felix Diaz, John Molina, Hank Lundy & Dierry Jean Josh Taylor beat; Won the IBF v 19-0 Ivan Baranchyk Won the WBA v 24-0 Regis Prograis Won the WBC & WBO v 26-0 Jose Ramirez Also beat Viktor Postol, Miguel Vasquez, Ryan Martin & O’Hara Davies Taylors last 6 opponents have a combined record of 136-1
Comparing the two resumes and looking at the opponents, I feel that Crawford might deal with Baranchyk more easily than Taylor did but I'd be interested to see how he would have fared at 140 vs Prograis. It's clear that Taylor's level of opposition is higher on the road to being undisputed, but it's not clear whether Crawford would have fared any better or worse given the same opposition.
Taylor's route looks at least on a par with Crawford's, maybe better imo. I'd probably give Josh the edge.
Crawford might be the better fighter but he faced VERY weak opposition at 140. His road to all the belts could not have been easier. Taylor had a much more difficult path and beat legit opponents, undefeated guys. I’m impressed by his willingness to fight anyone at his weight, something that is becoming rare these days. He fought Ramirez in his opponent’s backyard and looked very good against a tough and highly motivated opponent. Watch the Crawford fight against stick man Indongo. It’s good for a laugh. He beat overrated Postol, his best scalp at 140. Postol is weaker than any of the guys Taylor beat for the belts. I’m a fan of Crawford and regard him as one of the top PFP fighters but he unified a very weak division. It’s not even close.
Crawford was coming in as high as 153 when he was campaigning down at 135, I doubt Taylor would've even weighed that much the other night, at 140 Crawford was coming in as high as 157 In just 18 fights Taylor has unified all four belts Has beaten five former or current world champions in 18 fights to Crawford's 8 in 37 fights. Crawford didn't even beat a world champion until his 23 fight He equaled the 37-0 Crawford's best win in just his 13th fight because he was only 12-0 when he fought Postol And when he fought Postol he Had only fought one world class opponent before (a past prime Vazquez) Had taken part in zero world title fights Had never been past 9 rounds before Was giving away 4'' in reach And would've weighed about the same as Postol Whereas, conversely, when Crawford fought Postol he was 28-0 Had fought 6 or 7 world class opponents It was his 7th world title fight Had been into the 10th or further five times including the full 12 twice Had a slight reach advantage over the Ukrainian (Crawford has never once been at a reach disadvantage in any of his fights against world class competition) And had a 5lb weight advantage over Postol And on top of that he spent the entire fight on his bicycle stinking out the joint like he was in against a murderous puncher for which he rightfully got panned Baranchyk, Rougarou, JCR, Khongsong, and even Davies are all legit bangers and he's fought four of them in back to back in his last four fights in JCR, Rougarou, Baranchyk, and Khongsong and didn't come close to hitting the canvas once How many legit punchers has Crawford fought in 37 fights? He was badly hurt by leprechaun Gamboa and dropped by Egis which is one of the very rare instances he's fought a legit banger and especially one his own size Crawford unified against the light hitting Postol and Indongo, both of which in his home country with 7 of the 8 officials coming from his country too Taylor won his world title at home, unified 2 belts at home but all the judges came from neutral countries albeit he had home refs, but he unified all four away and the ref and all three judges were from the US. So he didn't have a single home judge in any of those fights whereas Crawford only had one single foreign one for his and he had home refs for all his fights Taylor won a world title in 15th fight, unified two of the belts in his 16th, and just unified the division in 18 fights, Crawford didn't even win a world title until his 23rd fight Crawford wasn't undisputed until his 32nd fight and his learning curve wasn't anywhere near as steep as Taylor's was. Taylor won two of his belts off of JCR, Crawford won two of his from Indongo Beating JCR in his backyard with all four of the officials being from the US>>> Beating the glass-jawed Indongo in your own backyard with three of the officials coming from your backyard and one judge coming from a neutral country And even more impressive Taylor didn't even take up boxing until he was 15 y/0 Whereas, Crawford and JCR were both 7 y/o when they took up the sport Taylor's last six opponents JCR 26-0 Khongsong 16-0 Prograis 24-0 Baranchyk 19-0 Martin 22-0 Postol 29-1 Clearly Taylor
