BoxRec

As high as Crawford is regarded now, after the Canelo win, it seems to be the general consensus that going up to LHW and fighting Bivol, Beterbiev and Benavidez is a step too far... Crawford himself was on record, saying at the post-fight press-conference, that he is not gonna move up to LHW.

But just for fun purposes, I decided to go back in time and take a look at Light-Heavyweight landscape of 2010-2012. Top guys at the time were: Jean Pascal (WBC/Ring/Lineal), Beibut Shumenov (WBA), Tavoris Cloud (IBF), Nathan Cleverly (WBO).

(Note: Pascal will be defeated by Hopkins in May of 2011. We did a thread on Crawford-Hopkins, couple days ago).

These were times right before the arrival of Stevenson and Kovalev.

Could Crawford have become Undisputed at 175 against this class of light-heavyweights?

I certainly can't imagine he couldn't beat Shumenov. I'd make him the favorite over all of those guys. Pascal would be the toughest, and don't get me wrong any of them could potentially be too big. We're not sure.

Pascal with his very aggressive style very easily could be a step too far.

Shumenov was a fraud and Crawford would slap him around. He’d outpoint Cloud convincingly as well and possibly stop Cleverly late after losing some early rounds .He beats Pascual, but it’s more like an 8-4 or 7-5 kind of fight