With Floyd Mayweather nixing retirement for one more fight against UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor on Aug. 26, and Manny Pacquiao — in the twilight of his career — coming off a controversial loss to Jeff Horn in July, the pound-for-pound crown was wide open.
The torch was passed to Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez but the Nicaragua native dropped the baton in March, losing to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
Then the torch was picked up by Andre Ward, who retained his unified light heavyweight titles, knocking out seventh-ranked Sergey Kovalev back in June.
The mantle is on shaky ground, as three upcoming mega-fights could determine the pound-for-pound king of the sport: On Sept. 16, No. 2 ranked Gennady Gennady will face off against Canelo Alvarez. Then on Sept. 9, No. 3 Gonzalez and Rungvisai will meet in a rematch.
But the first of the big fights will take place on Saturday when unified 140-pound champion and world No. 4 Terence Crawford will battle unified 140-pound champion Julius Indongo for the undisputed junior welterweight championship (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).
Crawford (31-0, 22 KOs) has all the tools to reign on top of the sport in a time where boxing is regaining steam in popularity and on the verge of renaissance that we saw last from the 1980’s to the 2000’s.
“I think with Floyd Mayweather having retired from the sport and off into the entertainment and event business and with Manny Pacquiao having lost to Jeff Horn and maybe having to deep in the autumns of his career, there’s this nice opening for guys like Crawford,” ESPN boxing commentator Joe Tessitore told Sporting News.
“There’s this real room now for fresh faces who are dynamic super athletes, who are in the prime of their career, that have these five-, ten-year runs of getting all this attention, be willing to take on great challenges, fight each other. This is what we saw between 135-160 pounds in the early ’80’s. I think obviously we all look at [Marvin] Hagler, [Thomas] Hearns, [Roberto] Duran and [Sugar Ray] Leonard, the big four of that era. This sort of reminds me of that golden age that we saw then, in the non-heavyweight class, as we are now in the early stages of ‘Bud’ [Crawford] really being in position to lead the way.
“If he wins on Saturday, if you’re an American undisputed champion whose cleaned up an entire division with the ability to take on really big-ticket fights in that division if guys move up from 135, and other 140-pounders. Or head north to 147 and take on all these mega-fights there. I think ‘Bud’ is in a position to be the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.”
Out of the three forthcoming fights, Crawford-Indongo has the most on the line. It is fourth fight since weight classes adopted four title belts, that all four will be on the line. It’s also only the second time that belt unification is possible.
Tessitore believes that Crawford has a real shot to make a name for himself, but it won’t be an easy task.
“… I have great respect for Indongo,” Tessitore told SN. “There’re probably not many Americans (who saw it), but I’m sure there were people who saw the Ricky Burns fight, people who’ve seen video of the Troyanovsky knockout, but I’ve watched a good rip of highlights of Indongo and I think [Crawford’s] in against a real hungry, dangerous guy on Saturday.
“With a win on Saturday, I completely agree that you can rank Crawford one, two or three but I struggle rank him lower than that.”
If Crawford makes history on Saturday, he’s the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter on the planet. He’s in a fight with the most at stake.
That alone is what should determine who is the best.
