Four-division world champion Roy Jones Jr has revealed his pick for the best fighter in the world, believing that one champion has held that position for a long time.
During 2023, there have been a number of performances that have caught the attention of the boxing community and caused many fans to reshuffle their respective pound-for-pound rankings.
The displays of Gervonta Davis against Ryan Garcia, Naoya Inoue versus Stephen Fulton and Terence Crawford in with Errol Spence Jr stand out as this year’s highlights.
In an interview with Seconds Out, Jones was clear in his answer as to who the sport’s number one fighter is – Crawford.
In fact, he believes ‘Bud’ could have what it takes to jump up three weight-classes and defeat the undisputed super-middleweight champion, Canelo.
“I got ‘Bud’ Crawford as number one, Tyson Fury would be number two, Inoue number three and Canelo probably number four. But ‘Bud’ definitely wins number one because he has been number one for a long time, he’s just never had the opportunity to prove it.”
Now he has finally got the opportunity to get it proven, he proved his point and he did it in big fashion. Everyone else that they have put in front of him, he has beat. Now they put the man in front of him that he was supposed to struggle with, he walked over him. How is he not number one?”
“He can make that kind of a leap [to 168lbs] because of his skill level. Whether he can take the punch or not is the only thing that he will have to worry about, but he definitely can make the leap because of his skill level.”
Crawford seems set to rematch Spence in early 2024 before talks of a showdown with Canelo can progress.