After his stunning win over Errol Spence Jr this past weekend, Terence Crawford has been anointed the pound for pound king and widely hailed as a generational fighter.
With such high praise comes the inevitable comparisons to the best boxers of years gone by, and a name that has been put alongside Crawford’s more often than most is that of Floyd Mayweather.
When asked by Hot 97 about a potential clash against Mayweather, Crawford kept things respectful, but stated he was confident he would “hold his own” with ‘Money’ or any of the other greats from the past.
“If you put me in the ring with any of the great fighters from in around my weight class – past, present or future – I’ll hold my own with them.
That’s just how I feel. I just feel like our styles have evolved from the older fighters, they paved the way for us and the things that they adored and were doing in the ring, we mimic them – but we take it to the next level.
But I think I hold my own with any of those guys.”
The fantasy match up has ignited impassioned debate amongst many online, and former world champion Tim Bradley recently admitted he believes ‘Bud’ would have gotten the better of Floyd, prime for prime.
As unfortunately is always the case with these fantasy fights, boxing fans will simply ever be able to know which of the two iconic Americans would have emerged with the victory.
Mayweather has said in the past that he’d call time on his retirement to face Crawford if he defeated Spence, however this seems like it would not be a particular wise decision for ‘TBE’ at age 46.