Going up against a true super middleweight would have been a whole different kettle of fish for Crawford than facing a smallish, flat-footed 35-year-old Canelo. It was the perfect situation for Crawford to win the undisputed super middleweight championship against a small, old, and faded Canelo.<\/p>\n
Turki Should\u2019ve Put Bud\u2019s Feet to the Fire<\/p>\n
Turki Alalshikh should have put Crawford\u2019s feet to the fire by forcing him to fight \u2018The Big Four\u2019 at 168 to earn the fight against the fading superstar Canelo instead of giving it to him on a silver platter without him earning. He either fights each of \u2018The Big Four\u2019 or is given the option of facing \u2018The Mexican Monster\u2019 David Benavidez. Those should have been the options Turki offered to Crawford to get the so-called \u2018Fight of the Century\u2019 against Canelo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like Crawford walks around at 168, 170-ish or whatever. So, I feel like it was kind of easy for him to make the weight. He looked good. He handled it well,\u201d said Spence.<\/p>\n
Size-wise, Crawford was just as big as Canelo and should have been fighting at 168 years ago. That would have been interesting to have seen Crawford fighting David Benavidez and David Morrell when they were at 168. Would Crawford do well against either of them? Chris Williams doubts it. They\u2019re all wrong for him, power-wise and youth-wise.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is one of the greats, for sure,\u201d said Errol when asked if Crawford\u2019s win over Canelo makes him an all-time great.<\/p>\n
Spence is right. Crawford is an all-time great, but you can\u2019t call him #1, because he hasn\u2019t taken the risks needed for him to beat the top to sit among these four on the Mount Rushmore of boxing:<\/p>\n
Sugar Ray Robinson
\nMuhammad Ali
\nHenry Armstrong
\nJoe Louis<\/p>\n
Mount Rushmore: The Test Crawford Must Pass<\/p>\n
Crawford could improve his chances of being an all-time great in a true sense if he took the risks needed in the next two years to face the apex predators. He\u2019s not likely to do that, though, because the chances of him failing repeatedly would be high. When you barely beat Canelo, it\u2019s a signal that you\u2019re not going to be one of the apex fighters.<\/p>\n
The fights Crawford should take to be on the Mount Rushmore of boxing:<\/p>\n
David Benavidez
\nDmitry Bivol
\nJaron Ennis
\nDavid Morrell
\nOsleys Iglesias
\nArtur Beterbiev
\nJai Opetaia<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Chris Williams is a senior writer for Boxing News 24, covering the sport since 2013 and reporting ringside from major events worldwide. His coverage dives into both established champions and hungry prospects battling for recognition. Over the years, Chris has contributed to numerous leading boxing outlets, earning respect for his sharp analysis and insider perspective.<\/p>\n
Boxing News 24<\/a> \u00bb – An Analyst’s Perspective<\/a> \u00bb Spence on Crawford\u2019s Victory: \u201cCanelo\u2019s Not a Big Guy Anyway \u2014 He Began at Welterweight\u201d<\/p>\n Last Updated on 11\/09\/2025 \t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Errol Spence Jr. says he wasn\u2019t surprised about Terence Crawford\u2019s victory over undisputed super middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254508,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-254507","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boxing","8":"tag-boxing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}