Trainer Greg Hackett says a Terence Crawford victory over Canelo Alvarez in 2025 would make him the best fighter in 30 years.
For Crawford to be considered the best fighter of the last 30 years because he beat his best Canelo would be ignoring the many great fighters who have done much more than him.
We already know how Crawford will fight Canelo using Mayweather’s blueprint hitting and running. He will NOT stand in front of Canelo and exchange punches.
Terence will play it safe and make the fight boring all the time. Fans will be pissed because they wasted money by ordering the fight on PPV.
Hackett already sees Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) as the pound-for-pound No. 1 to win world titles in four weight classes and undisputed in two weight classes. It’s hard to agree with Hackett because Crawford’s wins in those four divisions were against nobody special.
If you’ve seen Canelo’s last two fights against Edgar Berlanga and Jaime Munguia, you’ll know that he looks like he’s past his prime at 34 years old. He is showing his age in his 19th year as a pro. The first two fights against Gennady Golovkin took a lot out of Canelo and he hasn’t looked the same since.
Measuring Crawford’s legacy
Crawford is fair the other Adrien Broner in this regard. Broner also won world titles in four weight classes, but his resume was as thin as Bud’s. It shows you how diluted the four alphabets of titles are that fighters can choose from in order to win belts with the help of their slick promoters.
Bud’s Best wins
– Israel Madrimov
– Errol Spence
– Shawn Porter
– Kell Brook
– Amir Khan
– Yuriorkis Gamboa
– Ricky Burns
– Viktor Postol
You’d have to be simple to think those are good enough wins to make Crawford the no. 1 p-4-p or the best fighter in the last 30 years. Based on those wins, I can only say that his promoters matched Crawford very carefully.
That is NOT enough fighters to give Crawford credit for beating them because they were mostly over the hill when he fought them. Madrimov is the only one who hasn’t been shot, and he came close to defeating Crawford in his 12th pro fight.
If Crawford were to beat a fading 34-year-old Canelo, it wouldn’t make him the best in 30 years because he wouldn’t have racked up the kind of victories that the former six-division world champion Oscar De La Hoya or the champion of the eighth league Manny Pacquiao worked during their careers. Those two are the best.
You can’t include Crawford because he fought weak opposition, same with Floyd Mayweather Jr. ‘Money May’ was too selective with the opposition he faced and spent too much time picking to preserve his precious O. Floyd was the catalyst for this generation’s cherry pickers. He was a teacher.
“The tank is a beast, but I think pound for pound, Bud [Crawford] is #1. Many times people doubted him. They suspected him [Errol] Spence. They suspected him [Israil] Madrimov. Some people say it was too small. I heard them,” Greg Hackett said YSM Sports media on his belief that Terence Crawford should be #1 pound for pound.
“When he fought with Viktor Postol, he [Crawford] was too small. When he fought [Yuriorkis] Gamboa, he didn’t know enough. It was a lot of shit. If he beats Canelo, he’s going to be the worst motherfucker in 30 years,” Hackett said of Terence.
“Right now in the game, it has to be Bud and then probably Inoue after that,” Hackett continued of his belief that Crawford should be the No. 1 pound-for-pound in the sport. “Bud, people don’t get that. They’ve been counting him down for a long time. He kept winning and he won a lot **.
It is too early to say that Crawford will get the fight against Canelo in 2025. Nothing is official yet, and the chances are that Canelo will turn down the fight. It’s a no-win type of matchup for Canelo, since Crawford is getting more out of him than he is. If he beats Crawford, there is no real gain. A Crawford win over Canelo would be huge and the paycheck would be huge as well. The money alone is a win for Crawford.
Title restrictions
“Tank was always a 130, 135-pounder. People are trying to say that Tank weighed 126 pounds,” Hackett said. “I fought several cards with Tank. He never really made 126. I say Bud was kicking ass at 135, 140, 147, and he just won the belt at 154.
“Champion at 135, undisputed at 140 and 147, right? Then he won another belt at 154. He’s still undefeated,” Hackett said of Crawford. “A lot of steps, a lot of guys that should have beaten him. A lot of guys that should have been too big for him. Too fast, too hard. This one should have been tried and tested, but he beat them all. He gave Gamboa his first defeat.”
Again, winning a four-division world title doesn’t mean Crawford is great because he didn’t beat anyone to win his four-division titles.
Crawford won titles in four divisions
– Israel Madrimov: 154
– Jeff Horn: 147
– Thomas Dulorme: 140
– Ricky Burns: 135
