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 that rarified air comes comparisons to the best boxers of years gone by, and a name that has been put beside Crawford’s more than most is that of Floyd Mayweather.
And in a recent interview with FightHype, former world champion Tim Bradley admitted he believes ‘Bud’ would have gotten the better of Floyd, prime for prime.
“I talked about this years ago and everybody thought I was crazy. I will say this again, Terence Crawford would beat upon Mayweather. I’m telling you right now, he would beat him.”
“Yes it would be a competitive fight. But Crawford is a master thinker, just like Floyd. The advantage that Floyd has is that he has great defence.
But Crawford is versatile, he can fight orthodox and southpaw – and we know Floyd don’t like to fight southpaws.”
“What happens when you have a guy who can hurt you with either hand? A guy that’s powerful and strong like Crawford?”
“I’ve got Terence Crawford. It’s nothing against Floyd, he’s one of my favourite fighters of all time. But I think Crawford would win a close decision against Floyd Mayweather.”
As unfortunately is always the case with these fantasy match ups, the boxing world will simply never be able to know which of the two iconic Americans would have emerged victorious.
Mayweather has said in the past that he’d end his retirement to face Crawford if he toppled Spence, however this seems like it would be a very unwise decision for ‘TBE’ at age 46.