BoxRec

Crawford is 3 weeks away from a fight to become the undisputed 140lb champion. Surely after that his business beating up those poor guys is finished and he can move to Welterweight.

Does anyone give him trouble at 147? Looking at the BoxRec top 10.

1. Jeff Horn - Will be exposed by first non-past prime top WW he faces. Not budging on my assessment of him as shite. TC KO.
2. Keith Thurman - Top guy at WW. Proven himself vs Porter and Garcia but also showed that he's not "elite" imo. Bud too smart. TC 116-112.
3. Manny Pacquiao - On the slide. Fight should have happened 12-18 months ago. TC dominant UD.
4. Danny Garcia - Doesn't have anything to trouble Crawford stylistically. TC wide UD.
5. Errol Spence Jr - Best chance imo. Maybe only chance. Young, strong, powerful, takes a shot, good body puncher. Biggest guy at the weight. Hasn't reached potential. Crawford razor close decision.
6. Shawn Porter - The shorter, aggressive Gamboa gave Crawford a few problems. Porter is a tough night for anyone but would expect Crawford to box well enough to win UD. TC 116-112.
7. Lamont Peterson - Very good at 140 but B-level at 147. Possibly good "introductory" fight at WW for Crawford. TC mid-rd KO.
8. Jessie Vargas - Outboxed by Bradley and Pac. Doesn't have skills to outbox Bud or power to stop him. TC late KO.
9. Adrien Broner - Will probably be ranked at 140 after the Garcia fight. Crawford would beat him up at any weight. TC late KO.
10. Sam Eggington - Bradley Skeete boxed his ears off. Made improvements but not to elite level. TC mid-rd KO.

There's my views. Crawford can run through the majority of Welterweights. Porter would be physically tough. Thurman would hang with him but Crawford has extra gears. Spence, like Crawford, is a special talent. Spence has the physical advantages, Bud has the mental edge, could go either way.

It's official, Crawford is the future p4p #1. Then he can fill out and whoop everyone at 154 as well.

There are guys that trouble him at 147, most notably Errol Spence, but I'd pick him to beat everyone at 147 at the moment...Spence included.

Spence is the only guy I think can beat him. He'd annihilate Horn or Pacquiao, one of them would likely be his fight. With a rematch happening there, he might fight Lipinetts before moving up.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Spence is the only guy I think can beat him. He'd annihilate Horn or Pacquiao, one of them would likely be his fight. With a rematch happening there, he might fight Lipinetts before moving up.

If he's smart he tries to take on Spence sooner rather than later. The one edge that Crawford might have right now is the fact that Spence is more green and inexperienced than him. It won't take long for Spence defending his title for that possible advantage to disappear.

gilgamesh wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Spence is the only guy I think can beat him. He'd annihilate Horn or Pacquiao, one of them would likely be his fight. With a rematch happening there, he might fight Lipinetts before moving up.

If he's smart he tries to take on Spence sooner rather than later. The one edge that Crawford might have right now is the fact that Spence is more green and inexperienced than him. It won't take long for Spence defending his title for that possible advantage to disappear.

Arum and haymon won't work together for that fight. While it's arguably the best match up in the sport, it's not a money fight. I doubt it ever happens.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:

gilgamesh wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Spence is the only guy I think can beat him. He'd annihilate Horn or Pacquiao, one of them would likely be his fight. With a rematch happening there, he might fight Lipinetts before moving up.

If he's smart he tries to take on Spence sooner rather than later. The one edge that Crawford might have right now is the fact that Spence is more green and inexperienced than him. It won't take long for Spence defending his title for that possible advantage to disappear.

Arum and haymon won't work together for that fight. While it's arguably the best match up in the sport, it's not a money fight. I doubt it ever happens.

Would be a damn shame if we NEVER see it, but I fear you're probably right.

Hate to say it, but if Spence cuts off Crawford's lateral movement, he will stop him. Too big, too strong, too skilled. Crawford would run.
Danny Garcia split with Crawford in the amateurs, so no easy fight.
Thurman is a tough fight too..nearly 50/50. Edge to Crawford.
Crawford isn't big, but has skills up the ying yang. I would say Spence beats him, and close fights with DG and KT. He beats Porter easy like his last opponent.....same style.

Spence and Thurman can beat him. He handles everyone else.

He beats most ww.

Those guys give him problems:

Brook, very athletic, got sihe reach on crawford. Good footwork. Too much for tc.

Spence & thurman, both much bigger, very powerful puncher. They would both not only beat skinny crawford but tko him.

Garcia & porter, again the size factor. Danny would be a close fighter. Porter rushes threw crawford.

Brook doesn't have reach on Crawford. In fact, Crawford has a slight advantage in reach on all of those guys with the exception of Spence. More expert analysis. LOL

In my opinion Crawford is the p4p king right now

Not sure where people are coming from with announcing Crawford as top boy, not in my book at all.
Terence is good but he's going to find the going a lot harder at 147 when he get's there, it's bandit country at Welterweight and most of the big names are hungry.

tiny_acres wrote:In my opinion Crawford is the p4p king right now

X2, significantly for me.

I'd say the OP is fairly on the money. Crawford is a highly skilled elite fighter. The only place he could come unstuck is physically. The biggest skilled guy at 147 is spence. If spence could live with his skill set, then its over to Errol to make his physicality count.

Porter has physicality as well but slightly less refined and tactical than spence, so there's more leeway for Crawford to out slick him.

Thurmans good but there's something missing for me to make me think he's elite. He good 147 champ but not good enough for me to think he can't be outboxed or is p4p

The rest at 147 should be fairly straight forward

Crawford beats the old guard.. Pacquiao, Khan, and Bradley.

Spence beats Crawford... A very hard fight for 8 or 9 rounds and Spence takes over... Crawford out-boxes Danny Garcia by a wider margin than Thurman did.. Thurman is a wild card.. He's a switch hitter like TC and very smart.. He seemed to do just enough to win his fights against Danny and Porter.. He's a dangerous hitter and buzzed both of them early.. He got up on them in rounds, but let up a little and let them back in, making those fights closer than they needed to be.. If he makes some adjustments based on those fights, that would be good.. Crawford-Thurman would be one of those nail biters just before they announce the winner.. I also think Crawford beats Porter handily -- a tough fight.

Crawford would render Thurman clueless

Spence-Crawford 75/25....
Thurman-Crawford 50/50....
Crawford beats the rest, easily.......

gilgamesh wrote:

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Spence is the only guy I think can beat him. He'd annihilate Horn or Pacquiao, one of them would likely be his fight. With a rematch happening there, he might fight Lipinetts before moving up.

If he's smart he tries to take on Spence sooner rather than later. The one edge that Crawford might have right now is the fact that Spence is more green and inexperienced than him. It won't take long for Spence defending his title for that possible advantage to disappear.

Good point here. I agree that Spence/Crawford are definitely heading for a clash and the winner will be determined by the date of the fight. The longer TC waits, the better Spence is going to get. I think Spence has got ATG written all over him but I'm not sure about Crawford and his success at 147. I think that's just too big. We've seen TC buzzed by a sub 140lb fighter. Doesn't look good.

Why does everyone think Crawford is small? His arms can touch the canvas.

SaadOffTheDeck wrote:Why does everyone think Crawford is small? His arms can touch the canvas.

Probably newer fans. It took me a while of being a fan before I realized how a guy moving up in weight isn't always as big a deal as it seems. Most fighters tend to start out fighting a few weight classes BELOW what their natural body weight would be, so when you see them move up 1 or 2 weight classes...chances are all that means is they're actually even stronger than they were before because now they're not draining.

Some guys don't handle moving up in weight well, but if you got the right eye for it you can usually have a good idea for which ones will. Miguel Cotto for instance seemed stronger and able to get more out of his body as a Welterweight than a Jr. Welterweight. That's just one example.

It took me a while of following the sport, and really seeing first hand how all this works before I would've gotten it as well. In my early years of fandom when I heard a guy was moving up in weight I was always like "How's he gonna handle the power of the bigger guys?"

Now I usually have a pretty good idea how a guy is gonna do at the new weight class before they ever even set foot in the ring at that weight.

Spot on, the vast majority of hardcore fans are oblivious to weight, but it astounds me that people look at a completely shredded man with long arms and talk about him being small.

He certainly looks like he can step up through the weight, he already has to a certain degree, you don't know how you're gonna be at the weight class till you fight in it though imo. It's not just how you are at the weight, it's the opponents you're facing. 140-147 is deceiving gap in my opinion.

Cotto, good example of some who was better at 147 than he ever was at 140.
Hatton imo was always better at 140 than any venture he had at 147.

Other examples are ward looks better at 175 imo than he did at 168. Looks stronger and fights at a better pace. People call Bellew a blown up light heavy. He looks much better at 200 than 175, and he looked really poor above 200.

It really does depend on the individual I think.

So whilst Crawford isn't small, facing spence is bigger physical challenge than he'll get at 140. And Porter for that matter. And if spence is to beat him, I don't think it's through out slicking him, it'll be imposing his strength, size and will. He's obviousky skilled as well

I don't think ward looks anywhere near as good at 75, though I'd attribute it more to age and inactivity. Spence is a massive welterweight, I can see size playing a part there.

I think Spence moves up before a Hitman Jr fight can happen.

On the size issue; Postol made Hitman Jr look small in there, as will The Indongo. While he is not too small to move to 147, the physicality of welters will be challenging for him.

Indongo is 'bigger', the physicality of Crawford will render him useless.