Terence Crawford finally got the signature victory that was missing from his résumé, defeating Shawn Porter by 10th-round TKO in a career-defining performance.
Crawford had to deal with Porter’s pressure during the first half of the fight, but as has always been the case in his career, got his rhythm back after that. Two of the three judges had Crawford winning Rounds 6, 7 and 9, and the other all four rounds from 6-9, before Crawford sent Porter to the canvas twice in Round 10 to end the fight.
That victory inspired some of our voters to move Crawford up on their lists, including former two-division champion and ESPN boxing analyst Timothy Bradley Jr., who ranked Crawford at No. 1 over Canelo Alvarez. However, while Crawford did gain some ground with the win, he came up short to Alvarez and stayed at No. 2.
“I understand Canelo Alvarez won the undisputed super middleweight championship, but Crawford also won an undisputed championship at 140 pounds, so he matches Canelo there,” Bradley said. “Alvarez has won titles in four different weight-classes, Crawford has won titles in three different divisions and he’s also undefeated. Since 2014, Crawford is 16-0 in title fights, with 13 KOs. He’s the most feared fighter in boxing. If he had the same opportunities as Canelo, it wouldn’t be any doubts. But the fact of the matter is that guys don’t want to fight Crawford; whereas Canelo is the cash cow of boxing and everybody wants to share the ring with him because they can make a lot of money.
“When I look at both guys, you pick a weight class, both guys weight the same, who would you put you money on, would you put your money on Crawford or Canelo? Who has more skill? Pound-for-pound, if both these guys, with their skill set were to fight each other, I got Crawford all day long.”
No. 1-ranked Alvarez also scored a stoppage victory in his most recent fight, on Nov. 6 in an 11th-round TKO over Caleb Plant. He unified all four major super middleweight world titles. Eric Woodyard believes that was enough to move Alvarez past Crawford on his list.
“This was a tough decision, because in terms of pure boxing skills, I still don’t feel that anyone touches Bud Crawford in the ring — which he showed against Porter,” Woodyard said. “However, I still bumped Alvarez up to No. 1 after his massive victory over Caleb Plant to become the undisputed middleweight champ. I wish there was a 1-A and 1-B, but for now, Alvarez gets the edge as the sport’s biggest attraction as well.
But what about the rest of the ESPN voters? Where did they rank Alvarez and Crawford after their victories?
Our panel of Mike Coppinger, Bradley, Joe Tessitore, Michael Rothstein, Eric Raskin, Andre Ward, Teddy Atlas, Nick Parkinson, Ben Baby, Woodyard, Michelle Joy Phelps, Kel Dansby, Bernardo Pilatti, Charles Moynihan and Salvador Rodriguez share their votes.
