{"id":292290,"date":"2025-12-01T01:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292290\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T01:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T01:09:12","slug":"hall-of-fame-champion-says-he-would-have-been-the-man-to-beat-terence-crawford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/292290\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame champion says he would have been the man to beat Terence Crawford"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pound-for-pound icon has dismissed Terence Crawford<\/a> in a fantasy matchup at 168lbs, firmly believing that his speed would have proved too significant for the naturally smaller man.<\/p>\n

Crawford made a monumental statement when he jumped up to super-middleweight and toppled Canelo Alvarez to become a three-division undisputed champion.<\/a><\/p>\n

This extraordinary feat arrived in September, with \u2018Bud\u2019 producing a career-defining performance to decisively outpoint Canelo and capture his four major belts.<\/p>\n

But while his display was truly impressive, there is no denying that the 38-year-old\u2019s frame was always better suited to the lower weight divisions.<\/p>\n

At 147lbs for instance, Crawford ended every one of his outings inside the distance, before finally dethroning Errol Spence Jr with an emphatic ninth-round stoppage victory in 2023.<\/p>\n

With the Omaha man collecting world titles at 135lbs, 140lbs and 154lbs too, many suspected that his assignment against Canelo would simply be a step too far.<\/p>\n

On that particular night though, Crawford utilised practically every weapon in his arsenal to prove that size, in fights like this, only represents half of the story.<\/p>\n

And yet, nevertheless, former multi-weight world champion Roy Jones Jr<\/a> remains convinced that he would have had the beating of \u2018Bud\u2019 at 168lbs.<\/p>\n

Not only would he have boasted a glaring size advantage, but Jones also believes that his speed was perhaps beyond what Crawford has ever previously experienced.<\/p>\n

That, along with his largely enigmatic style, is why Jones told Boxing News that he, unlike Canelo, would have ultimately been a step too far for the five-division world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Terence \u2013 Terence is a very good fighter \u2013 but he grew up on Roy Jones. It\u2019s hard to tell you that these guys [would have] whooped Roy Jones when they\u2019re still asking questions, to Roy Jones, about how he did things.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat Roy Jones if you don\u2019t fully understand him. It would have been an intriguing fight [with Crawford] because he has heart, and he has confidence, and is a very challenging guy \u2013 that\u2019s why I knew he\u2019d beat Canelo, because he stands up to the challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I was a different guy. I was much faster than 99 per cent of the people I fought.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crawford\u2019s next move is currently unknown, with it seeming likely that he will drop down to middleweight in search of claiming world honours in another division.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pound-for-pound icon has dismissed Terence Crawford in a fantasy matchup at 168lbs, firmly believing that his speed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[2560,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-292290","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\/292290","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=292290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}