Terence Crawford captured some of boxing’s rare air Saturday night, when he demolished Errol Spence Jr. to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the world. The win made him the first male boxer and just the second boxer overall — Claressa Shields was first — to claim undisputed crowns in two separate divisions.
At 40-0 with 31 knockouts, Crawford has already gone on record saying that he has no desires of chasing down’s Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s 50-0 record.
But just imagine how a Crawford fight against a prime Mayweather would go.
DAZN takes this dream matchup and breaks it down over several categories towards making a prediction.
Boxing ability
When it comes to pure boxing ability, you’d be hard-pressed to find another producer of more sweet science masterclasses than Floyd Mayweather Jr. The crisp jab, precision, timing and counterpunching ability all empowered Mayweather to pick his long list of opponents apart.
And he did it over two iterations of himself. “Pretty Boy” Floyd was the more aggressive boxer, bringing the fight to opponents, while “Money” Mayweather years later would compute and edge opponents out with brilliant boxing. Whichever style you prefer, both bodies of work made the legend that is Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Comparatively, boxing fans are still in awe of what Crawford did to Spence this past weekend. Whether it was a power jab that he repeatedly snapped through Spence’s guard, punching in traffic or the timing of his counterpunches, “Bud” exhibited supreme boxing ability. And it wasn’t the first time, but we’ve never seen it like that against a fighter of Spence’s caliber.
When talking pure boxing ability, arguably nobody should get a push over Mayweather. But Crawford’s style of boxing is different, yet effective — even explosive — in his own right.
So how would their boxing stack up if Crawford would fight a Mayweather in his prime and use his lasering shots against Mayweather’s disciplined sweet science? Who would assert the jab first? Who would be the more effective counterpuncher?
There are so many ways to see this play out, that it might be best to declare this category a draw.
Edge: Draw
Ring IQ
How many times have we witnessed Mayweather lull and eventually lure his opponents to the middle of the ring, where he computed information, analyzed it and uploaded a blueprint to pick his opponents apart?
Mayweather took his ring IQ and mantra of “hit and not get hit” and essentially rode it to the Hall of Fame as an undefeated five-division world champion.
Crawford, in being crowned undisputed at junior welterweight and now welterweight, has shown a high ring IQ himself throughout his career.
But Mayweather would have the edge over anyone in this category.
Edge: Mayweather
Speed
Mayweather demonstrated hand speed, especially on the counterpunching end, but Crawford’s slashing angles and whiplashing delivery has “Bud” owning the advantage in speed.
Edge: Crawford
Power
Of Mayweather’s 50 wins, 27 came by the way of knockout. That’s in comparison to Crawford’s 40 wins — 31 of them coming via knockout — and he's still active.
Now, re-enter Crawford’s wizardry over Spence, dropping him three times en-route to a dominant ninth-round TKO. Decimating a power-punching, body-snatching fighter like Spence, who systematically broke down Kell Brook, Shawn Porter and Yordenis Ugas to become the unified world welterweight champion, was anything but easy.
Yet, Crawford made it look easy and his power was a big reason why.
Edge: Crawford
Defense
Mayweather painted in the corner, raising that shoulder into the Philly Shell and absorbing shots with his arm while using his free hand to pick his punches was defensive boxing, turned counterpunching at its very finest.
Crawford has some slick defense to him as well. But Mayweather took defensive boxing skills to another level — of damn-near perfection.
Edge: Mayweather
How a Crawford vs. prime Mayweather fight would go? Who wins?
All dreamt up, how would Crawford vs. a prime Mayweather fight actually go? And who would win?
After a tense first round where each boxer is trying to feel out the other, we see Crawford being the more active and busy fighter early on, launching and landing shots — even if many of them are absorbed by Mayweather’s shoulder and elbow.
By the middle rounds, Mayweather’s style would set in, as he’d pepper Crawford with jabs, banking some rounds.
Yet, with a constant flow of pressure, Crawford’s firepower could get to Mayweather — even enough to hurt the legend at times.
As close as we see this one being, Crawford’s fighting ability and those whiplashing punches might be just enough to have judges credit him on his pressure and volume en-route to a points win over Mayweather’s brand of boxing.
Winner: Crawford by close decision.