Crawford wants #1 P-4-P spot if he beats Indongo

Boxingnews24.com

By Allan Fox: WBC/WBO light welterweight champion Terence “Bud” Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) figures he should be rated as Ring Magazine’s No.1 pound-for pound fighter if he beats IBF/WBA 140 lb. champion Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs) in their unification fight on August 19 at the Pinnacle Bank Arena, in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Crawford, 29, is currently rated #4 in the pound-for-pound rankings. He’s considered to be the best fighter in the 140lb division, but that doesn’t say very much because the division is a weak one with little in the way of talent.

All the good fighters have already moved up in weight or are over-the-hill. For Crawford, a welterweight sized fighter, to take the top spot in the pound-for-pound ratings, he’ll likely need to move up to 147 and take on guys his own size like Errol Spence Jr., Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia.

That would be a tough ask for Crawford to beat guys with arguably more punching power than him, but that may ultimately be the only way Crawford is able to surpass the 3 guys ahead of him in the pound for pound ratings.

Here are Ring Magazine’s top 10 pound-for-pound ratings:

1. Andre Ward

2. Gennady Golovkin

3. Roman Gonzalez

4. Terence Crawford

5. Vasyl Lomachenko

6. Guillermo Rigondeaux

7. Sergey Kovalev

8. Saul Canelo Alvarez

9. Mikey Garcia

10. Shinsuke Yamanaka

“If I win this fight, I will be the first boxer to own six World Champion titles and would have to be recognized as the best pound for pound,” said Crawford to ESPN Deportes.

I disagree completely that Crawford should be rated No.1 pound for pound for beating Indongo. You have to weigh in factors like the quality of opposition and the entertainment value for fighters that are evaluated for the top spot in the pound for pound ratings.

Indongo is certainly a good fighter, but he’s not a great fighter that is seen as someone that should give Crawford the top spot in the pound for pound ratings. The light welterweight division is one of the poorest in all of boxing. Indongo wouldn’t be a champion at all if the 140 lb. division was well stocked with quality fighters like the welterweight division.

If the top welterweights decided to melt down in weight the way that Crawford does in order to fight at 140, Indongo wouldn’t likely be a champion. If you put Spence down at 140 and match him against Indongo, he would walk right through him like he wasn’t even there. It would be the same with Keith Thurman. It’s not that those guys are so much bigger than Indongo. It’s that’s they so much better.

Crawford is a counter puncher, who often isn’t thrilling to watch. He moves too much, jabs and does a lot of taunting of his opponents. He wastes a lot of time inside the ring, stalling and not making it exciting. Crawford doesn’t go after his opponents like the guys that are immediately in front of him in Golovkin and Roman Gonzalez.

Those fighters make it exciting by looking to slug it out with their opponents. They don’t run around the ring, sticking their tongues out at their opponents while playing keep away. They make it exciting. There’s a huge difference between how Golovkin and Gonzalez fight in comparison to Crawford. There’s already a Crawford-like fighter at No.1 in the pound for pound ratings in Andre Ward. He fights a lot like Crawford with his spoiling tactics.

If Crawford and Ward were to take the top 2 spots in the pound for pound ratings it would suggest that the people at Ring Magazine that put together the pound or pound rankings prefer the style of fighting of Ward and Crawford. I’m not sure that the ratings would go along with what the boxing public prefers in their fighters. If I had a vote for the pound for pound rating, I wouldn’t be able put Crawford ahead of Golovkin or Gonzalez. But I also wouldn’t have Andre Ward at No.1.

I thought his last 2 fights against Sergey Kovalev were very controversial and far from entertaining. I would have Ward down at the No.10 spot in the ratings. I would place Crawford at No.9, because he hasn’t had an exciting fight since 2014 when he fought Yuriorkis Gamboa. Crawford’s fights since then have been dull affairs against Felix Diaz, John Molina Jr., Viktor Postol, Henry Lundy, Dierry Jean, Thomas Dulorme and Raymundo Beltran. While it’s possible for a fighter to have one or two boring fights, but when it’s 7 consecutive dull matches, then I can’t rank them highly in the pound for pound ratings. Crawford’s fights in the last 3 years have been really boring affairs.

“For me, the best at the moment is Andre Ward,” said Crawford.

I don’t think Ward deserves the top spot in the pound for pound rating. The way Ward has won his last 2 fights against Kovalev are too ugly and far too controversial for Ward to be rated No.1. I think Vasyl Lomachenko deserves to be rated No.1.

Here is my pound for pound ratings:

1. Vasyl Lomachenko

2. Gennady Golovkin

3. Roman Gonzalez

4. Guillermo Rigondeaux

5. Mikey Garcia

6. Saul Canelo Alvarez

7. Leo Santa Cruz

8. Naoya Inoue

9. Keith Thurman

10. Adonis Stevenson

I think my list is a lot more accurate and useful than Ring Magazine’s pound for pound ratings, which has too many fighters that I consider very boring to watch. I don’t mind seeing technical fighters compete, but I don’t look forward to watching their fights because they’re so boring to watch.

If Crawford beats Indongo on August 19, which he’s expected to do, I think the pound for pound ratings should stay exactly where they’re at without Crawford being pushed up. The top 3 guys haven’t lost and should stay where they’re at. Like I said, I don’t approve of Ward being at No.1, given his 2 questionable wins over Kovalev, but I don’t see him losing his spot for an empty win by Crawford over Indongo. I would personally move Crawford up to the No.1 spot in the pound for pounds if he beat both Keith Thurman and Errol Spence. Until Crawford beats both of those fighters, I don’t see him being deserving of the top spot in the pound for pound ratings.