OT Terrance Bud Crawford the GOAT
For those that did not watch last night's demolishing of an elite Errol Spence Jr., Crawford put on a stunner. He has cemented himself as arguably the best fighter ever. He has zero holes in his game. His defense is out of this world. His speed, both foot and hand are supreme. His timing and counter punching absurd. Well spoken and fairly humble. Every analyst and announcer were in awe of his performance.
Granted I’m not a huge boxing guy but I never heard of him until yesterday’s fight. Really going GOAT status after that fight?
No he has demolished elite competition for a decade. This was, going in, an evenly matched mega fight (so everyone including me thought). It was a one sided fight.
But to your point if your not a boxing fan you would not appreciate the boxers names he has been going through like water.
He's not the GOAT. He can put himself in the conversation with a few more performances like last night. Problem for him is he'll need to go up in weight to be challenged and right now there aren't any great fighters at 154. But at least unlike Floyd, he backs away from no challenge and doesn't wait until name fighters are 5 years beyond their prime to put a good name on his resume. Crawford will take on anyone. Ultimately, his resume is likely to be handicapped by the fact that most of the other GOAT contenders had more hall of fame level fighters to beat in their primes. At 35, Bud just may not be able to get enough fights in even if there were enough fighters to take on.
I will say, however, that he's a must watch. He moves btwn southpaw and traditional the way few ever have. He creates angles that shouldn't be possible. He looks like he has 4 arms--since he can jab so effectively with both hands, you never know where either jabs are power shots are coming from. And his footwork is so good, it's borderline impossible for his opponents to move effectively. I don't blame Spence for just coming forward because I don't know what else anyone can do.
Last thing: you have to remember a lot of great fighters lose it all at once and you never see it coming. Recent examples are Pacquiao and RJJ. I still think RJJ is the best fighter I've ever seen.
Maybe a little bit of an overreaction. But not much. He’s still young enough to cement GOAT status, and what he did last night is unprecedented.
First male fighter in history to be undisputed in two different weight classes.
He’s been one of the most talked about boxers for at least a decade. Can’t speak to why you’ve never heard of him, but he’s the real deal.
Fantastic performance. Absolutely phenomenal.
Other than that, I’m at valley girl twirling ponytail in dirty white Air Force Ones levels of “not even mmmm”. Sugar Ray Robinson and there’s no argument whatsoever.
GOAT in MMA, boxing or pickleball?
All of the above???
I am an avid boxing fan and yes, Crawford is in the discussion for sure. I would put him definitely above Mayweather as far as modern pound for pound fighters go.
All-time? It’ll be hard pressed to ever pass Sugar Ray.
"Definitely" above Mayweather? Interesting.
I easily vouch for this statement. Mayweather is amazing. But he has holes. His offensive performance, while above parnell Whitaker, is still lacking. Crawfords offensive skills are well beyond Mayweather. And he's willing to throw.
No sir. Mayweather is too fast for Crawford.
Mayweather cared more about money than legacy. And you have to count that against him. He refused to fight anyone like Crawford. If Mayweather was 30 today he'd wait 4 years to fight Crawford so that Mayweather would be still in his prime and Crawford would be at or near retirement. I give Floyd no credit for leaving the mystery of what would've happened if he ever took a decent fight. Hell, the most trouble he ever was in was against Mosley. A prime Mosley may have had enough in the tank to take Floyd out. Wasn't Mosely's fault that he was practically a grandpa.
The "cared more about money than legacy" narrative is so jejune. Floyd Mayweather (and team, I suppose) purposely created this Money Mayweather character to market himself as a villain post Bob Arum (with Top Rank, he was "Pretty Boy Floyd"). Boxing politics simply got in the way of many of the fights at some point in time due to the hostility between Bob Arum and Leonard Ellerbee (e.g., Mayweather wanted Cotto years before but Arum's team kept pushing the fight away. Cotto severs ties with Arum and, voila! Cotto vs Mayweather fight). Note the same (boxing politics) damn near prevented Spence and Crawford from happening and is directly responsible for the 18/24 month delay in the fight occurring.
As to Mayweather's "lack of decent fights", are you serious? Mayweather's opponents include an indisputable all-time great (Pacquiao, delayed by Pac's team), one who is likely a tier below that (De La Hoya), former P4P best (Alvarez - not at the time), and several who were considered elite at their weight classes (Cotto, Castillo x2, Corrales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Hatton, G Hernandez, Mosley, et al). "Lack of decent fights"?
Yes, it was Mosley's fault that he was 38 when they fought. Floyd's camp first contacted Mosley in 1999(!) when Mosley was an absolute machine at lightweight (when he used to "roll" his fists before throwing). Mosley then skipped 140 up to 147 and 154. You heard Floyd say around '06 or so post Vargas that "Mosley has been ducking me for 10 years," and Mosley was on the record saying "my tooth is a little loose right now" when he was queried in the ring about fighting Floyd that same year.
Other than Castillo who was a good not great fighter, and Hatton, who would've gone nowhere if wasn't from the UK, name one of those fighters who was even close to his prime when Mayweather agreed to a fight. Not one.
Leonard or Robinson?
I was sure that the OT stood for Offensive Tackle and was hoping to read about the best one ever.
And he puts on an entertaining fight looking to knockout his opponent. Not dance around like Mayweather did. Last night's fight was one of the most lopsided fights I've ever seen by 2 fighters though to be roughly equal.
Mayweather had 27 KOs. Crawford has 31 KOs. Not getting the "dance around not looking to KO your opponent" angle.
Money May would’ve given Bud problems. They should’ve fought 10 yrs ago.
Mayweather lost to Jose Lois Castillo. Any boxing fan that watched the fight would back that up. F the judges in boxing they have been ruining the sport for ages. Mayweather also has been wobbled multiple times in his career. Crawford has annihilated everyone.
Mayweather just markets himself with his mouth. Crawford is humble and quiet and from podunk Nebraska.
Stop
Floyd never would've taken the fight. His best skill was racking up wins over brand names after it was clear they were shot.
Mayweather fought 10 more times. Crawford, I believe, just set a boxing record by having 11 straight KOs in 11 straight title fights. That is crazy!
He is now the first and only male to have held all 4 belts in 2 different weight divisions. Only other boxer to have done that is frmale boxer Clarissa Shields of Flint Michigan.
None of this validates your statement that Floyd danced away from KOs considering he had...27 of them.
Majority of his knockouts (21) came at his natural weight classes (super fly/lightweight) as the general rule of thumb that you don't carry your power as you move up in weight classes applied.
As to general accolades, arguably best defensive fighter in boxing history (can really only argue that Pep is *better*; might argue that Whitaker is equal, and Benitez just below), was ranked by p4p best in last 25 years by ESPN in 2016, by far highest CompuBox +/- stats in their history, one of the best featherweights in boxing history, held belts at in five classes (super featherweight, lightweight, super lightweight, welterweight, super welter), is 26-0 in title fights, and is 24-0 against current/former world titlists.
Spence looked amateurish, off balance, “Swiss cheese” defense, slow arcing punches. Not sure the rematch clause should be exercised, though it’d be interesting to see if he could adjust and improve.
I don't think Spence would be wise to rematch. He needs to move back up. There was nothing that happened that I saw where I could say, if Spence just worked on this and this a little he could win. He was outclassed by a wide margin everywhere.
I think that's a bad take. Spence is a fantastic fighter. Crawford made Spence look bad; Spence isn't bad. That Crawford performance was one of the best of the last 25 years. Hard to overstate what a masterpiece that was.
I got Sugar Ray Robinson as the GOAT, but I have Bud Crawford as the greatest switch hitter ever. He is an orthodox fighter and boxed THE WHOLE FIGHT SOUTHPAW. Has power in both hands. Crawford and Inoue are the P4P best in the sport right now.
The GOAT, by far.
I'd take Floyd over anyone.
I am basing it on todays fighters still swangin. I agree on my homeboy.
Funny take when Floyd's worst performance was against JLC, who was good but a borderline hall of famer and then Floyd did literally nothing for the rest of his career. Part of being the GOAT as being willing to take on a challenge. Floyd has the worst record of tough fights of any great fighter ever.
Cotto, Corrales, Castillo, De La Hoya, Hatton, Gatti, Alvarez, Pacquiao, Mosley, Juan Manuel Marquez equals "nothing"? That's rich. Gotta blame Mayweather for not letting them hit him often enough.
This generation has whored the GOAT term out so bad that it simply means "very good for his generation." Crawford as the goat is laughable
I agree on their generation. That's why I stated that as for now, there is not one other boxer in any weight class as good as, Bud!
Correct. In the welterweight class alone you have Hearns, Ray Leonard, Ray Robinson, Henry Armstrong.
Crawford vs Hearns would be fascinating because Crawford is the best I've personally seen at fighting orthodox or southpaw - imaging batting .328 as righty and .337 as lefty -, but I'm genuinely curious as to who is taking Crawford "easily" over Leonard/Robinson.
I do agree the term GOAT is overused way too much. But you saying Crawford is not in the conversation is more laughable than people overusing the term evert week.Crawfords resume and what he has done against them is deserving of GOAT and imo, he is exactly that. I'll argue him against any boxer including Sugar Ray Robinson.