Terence Crawford has won undisputed world championships at super-lightweight, welterweight and all the way up at super-middleweight.
Unbeaten in his career, in that extraordinary run he’s beaten standouts Errol Spence, at 147lbs, and most recently Canelo Alvarez, the dominant force at 168lbs.
Beating Canelo at super-middleweight was implausible enough, moving up yet another division would not be realistic, even for Crawford.
But he is running out of challenges.
Matthew Macklin and Barry Jones debate what Terence Crawford will do next following his sensational win over Canelo Alvarez.
In one swoop he’s picked up all four of the major super-middleweight world titles, so there are no rival world champions for him there.
Crawford won the first fight with Alvarez so convincingly there’s little call for a rematch.
Hamzah Sheeraz is one of the leading contenders at super-middleweight, Chris Eubank Jr is a big name, but both are as yet unproven at world level.
Jaron Ennis, an unbeaten former unified welterweight world champion, has moved up to 154lbs and his promoter, Eddie Hearn insists “Boots” is the only fighter who can match Crawford.
Canelo Alvarez admits he ‘couldn’t figure out’ Terence Crawford’s style following his defeat to the American super-middleweight.
“Tell me a fight other than Ennis-Crawford, that you would really want to see Crawford in that is realistic,” Hearn told Sky Sports.
“A lot of those guys that Crawford fought, unfortunately for him, were past their best, even though I rate him as a generational talent, I think he’s unbelievable.
“The difference is with Ennis, Ennis isn’t in the backend of his career. Ennis isn’t coming off eye surgery or a terrible car crash [like Errol Spence], or hasn’t had 80 fights [Canelo is a veteran of 68 professional contests]. It’s not Crawford’s fault, he would have fought them all and he probably would have beaten them all.
“You’ve got to understand as well, Ennis is 10 years younger than Crawford.”
But Ennis still needs to work his way to that fight.
Terence Crawford says ‘great things come to those who wait’, after his historic win over Canelo Alvarez.
“Crawford is a generational great. He’s earned the right to fight anyone he wants and he’s only going to step back in the ring for a shedload of money. So we’ve got to do a lot on our side to make that fight as lucrative as it needs to be,” Hearn explained.
“We need to beat the champions. We also would love a fight with Vergil Ortiz.
“All of these guys we have to go through and I don’t see him losing to any of them.
“The only fight where I can’t tell you I’m 100 per cent convinced he wins is Terence Crawford because of how good Terence Crawford is.”
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