The Terence Crawford Conundrum

[Badhusker]

How fast will Crawford be able to compete with the elite at 147 so he can prove himself? It is an interesting scenario. I don't think the Jeff Horn fight is as bad as some think. It is a perfect place for Bud to start. Even if Horn didn't deserve the belt, he was competitive. Will Arum feed Pac to Crawford next?

I can't see guys like Porter, Garcia, or Thurman being interested, as they already don't seem keen on fighting Spence. I'm afraid Crawford will have to fight a few guys like Guerrero, Collazo, or hopefully Khan to make his mark as a welterweight "contender", even though he is ready to challenge the top guys right away.

I mentioned in another thread boxing politics may allow us to see Crawford vs Spence sooner that we originally thought. (If Arum allows it).

[littlepug]

For me he could beat anyone at welter right now, to take any easy fights would be going backwards imo

[Ruthless-RKO]

I can't see guys like Porter, Garcia, or Thurman being interested, as they already don't seem keen on fighting Spence. I'm afraid Crawford will have to fight a few guys like Guerrero, Collazo, or hopefully Khan to make his mark as a welterweight "contender", even though he is ready to challenge the top guys right away.

Retired mate.

Espinoza of Showtime and Arum, although they haven't had a sit down have both said, they would work together to make these fights. ESPN and Showtime would come to an agreement.

The only names on ESPN are really Pacquiao and Crawford. Showtime has many welterweights through it's affiliation with Haymon.

Porter, Thurman, Spence, etc.

[SenorPipino]

Crawford may be one of the best but it's unlikely he'll fight any of the best in 2018.

He'll toy with the ordinary Horn (Crawford is a 25-1 favorite) but then what?

All the intriguing talented welters are PBC fighters.

Not much chance that Haymon will allow them to cross the line and risk it all against an intriguing, talented TR fighter.

Just not enough money to make it worthwhile.

So expect Crawford to win Horn's belt in 2018, and then fight once or twice more against opponents nobody wants to see him in against.

At this stage, it's unlikely that semi-retired Pacquiao has any real desire to oppose Crawford.

[Badhusker]

I can't see guys like Porter, Garcia, or Thurman being interested, as they already don't seem keen on fighting Spence. I'm afraid Crawford will have to fight a few guys like Guerrero, Collazo, or hopefully Khan to make his mark as a welterweight "contender", even though he is ready to challenge the top guys right away.

Retired mate.

Espinoza of Showtime and Arum, although they haven't had a sit down have both said, they would work together to make these fights. ESPN and Showtime would come to an agreement.

The only names on ESPN are really Pacquiao and Crawford. Showtime has many welterweights through it's affiliation with Haymon.

Porter, Thurman, Spence, etc.

I forgot Guerrero had retired. Good for him. The rest of what you say about Espinoza and Arum working together, is something we will have to wait and see if it is true. I hope they lure Amir Khan to fight Crawford. lol There are a few others that might, like Lucas Matthysse, Jesse Vargas, or someone like Ray Robinson, Granados, etc to acclimate to the weight until the top guys grow a pair.

[northern]

Its a very good question about where you could rank Crawford in the current standing of the welterweight division.
He's a welcome addition to an already interesting division and with his ability I wouldn't be surprised if the chance of another unification fight could happen for him before he retires.

A fight with Jeff Horn would make sense as he is arguably the most inexperienced on the world stage and in terms of big fights in his career so far. Not to take away from Horn but out of the current champions (Thurman (WBA super, WBC), Spence/Peterson (IBF), Matthysse/Kiram (WBA world), Gavin/Ushona (IBO), Horn (WBO) ) he is also the only one who isn't coming off of either an injury or have a fight scheduled already.

Fighting Horn just makes the most sense, the title puts Crawford immediately into the world level without a warm up fight and matching up with the other big names in the division if he wins and gives him a few viable contenders not only to defend the belt against but to also to adjust to the division if he needed to (Giovanni Santillian, Keita Obara, Ray Robinson, Bradley Skeete).