Floyd Mayweather Jr said this week in an interview Terence Crawford should be a much bigger star than he is currently, and he says this is proof that there’s racism that still exists.
Further, Mayweather states that Vasily Lomachenko, who is rated slightly ahead of Crawford at #2 in Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound list, shouldn’t be considered better than him.
Ring Magazine’s pound-for-pound ratings:
- Canelo Alvarez
- Vasily Lomachenko
- Naoya Inoue
- Terence Crawford
- Oleksandr Usyk
- Errol Spence Jr
- Gennadiy Golovkin
- Juan Francisco Estrada
- Artur Beterbiev
- Manny Pacquiao
For Mayweather to attribute Lomachenko being rated ahead of Crawford due to racism seems to be way off from what the real reason is. WBA/WBC/WBO lightweight champion Lomachenko (14-1, 10 KOs) has fought better opposition than Crawford, and he’s arguably showed more talent during his short seven-year career than Terence has in his 12-year career.
The people that pick the pound-for-pound ratings at Ring Magazine obviously put a lot of weight on the competition that fighters face, and they look at how good they perform.
Lomachenko has been in with the best in capturing world titles in three weight classes. The problem with Crawford is, he hasn’t been fighting the best. He’s fought some good guys as he’s come up through the weights, but they haven’t been talented enough for him to get attention.
For example, when Crawford unified the 140-lb division, he beat these fighters to win his belts: Thomas Dulorme, Viktor Postol, and Julius Indongo. Those guys aren’t even belt-holders at 140 nowadays. The top guys at light-welterweight now are more advanced than when Crawford fought at 140.
“I look at guys like Terence Crawford. Terence Crawford can be a lot bigger than he is,” said Mayweather to Club Shay Shay. “This shows that racism still exists. How can you say that Lomachenko is better than Terence Crawford? Not at all. Not in a million years.”
Mayweather is correct in saying that Crawford should be a bigger star than he is today, but that’s a problem with his promoters at Top Rank. I can’t entirely agree with Mayweather that it’s about racism.
If Crawford had fought the same kind of guys that Mayweather fought and beaten them, he’d be a huge star today. Crawford hasn’t fought good enough opposition, and that falls on the shoulders of his promoters at Top Rank.
If they had put Crawford in with the best guys throughout his career, he’d be a much bigger star than he is today. Of course, Crawford would need to beat the best, and knows if he could? Maybe Crawford would have already lost if he’d mixed it up with Errol Spence Jr, Keith Thurman, Vasily Lomachenko, Josh Taylor, Jose Ramirez, and Danny Garcia.
These are arguably Crawford’s best career wins:
- Jeff Horn
- Julius Indongo
- Ricky Burns
- Amir Khan
- Egidijus Kavaliauskas
- Yuriorkis Gamboa
Lomachenko’s best wins
- Jorge Linares
- Jason Sosa
- Roman Martinez
- Nicholas Walters
- Guillermo Rigondeaux
- Jose Pedraza
- Luke Campbell
- Gary Russell Jr
Looking at the two fighters’ records, it’s pretty clear that Lomachenko has better wins on his resume than Crawford. That’s not Crawford’s fault. His promoters are the ones that set up his fights, and he hasn’t been able to take on the right guys for him to be a bigger star. That’s just the way it is.
Crawford’s resume is too thin on talent for him to be rated higher than where he is at #3. That’s not because of racism that Crawford isn’t a bigger star. It’s because of the lackluster match-making that’s been done on his behalf.
When you’re beating guys like Khan, Indongo, Horn, Jose Benavidez, and Kavaliauskas, those aren’t good enough names for Crawford to become a star and be ranked higher in the pound for pound list.
With boxing being separated due to the promoters, many fighters don’t get a chance to face the top guys on the other side of the fence being promoted elsewhere. Crawford could have changed that had he had moved on when his contract with Top Rank expired, but he chose to re-up with them.
