Terence Crawford's Talent Is Too Big for 140 Pounds

Nobody will dispute Terence "Bud" Crawford's status as one of the world's premiere boxing talents. The undefeated unified super lightweight champion certainly wouldn't.

When asked if he's the best boxer on earth, Crawford doesn't hesitate to say "Of course."

Does he ever have any doubts? Does he ever second-guess himself?

"Not at all."

When pressed, Crawford (30-0, 21 KOs) says that he "trains too hard" to be anything but the top fighter, pound for pound. It's probably not modesty, and more likely the Omaha native's reluctance to say too much that keeps Crawford from acknowledging that he's overwhelmingly talented.

The problem is, Crawford isn't going to be perceived (or paid) like the world's best while he's at 140 pounds, which is starting to resemble the welterweight division's Triple-A.

The 147-pound division currently reads like a Who's Who of boxing: WBA and WBC champion Keith Thurman, IBF titlist Kell Brook, WBO belt holder Manny Pacquiao, and top talents Shawn Porter, Danny Garcia, Adrien Broner, and Errol Spence Jr.

Crawford, the WBC and WBO champion, is running thin on legitimate opponents at 140. He's already beaten Viktor Postol and Ricky Burns. That really leaves only the IBF and WBA champ Julius Indongo (22-0, 11 KOs), who won a unanimous decision over Burns in Scotland last month, and Felix Diaz (19-1, 9 KOs), a 33-year-old former Olympic gold medalist who will face Crawford at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Maybe super featherweight prodigy Vasyl Lomachenko moves up to 140 some day, or perhaps American Mikey Garcia, the WBC lightweight champion, continues to fill out. But it's far more likely that the 29-year-old Crawford will add weight in his 30s, which makes this stretch the most important of his career.

By unifying the super lightweight titles, Crawford could possibly enter the welterweight division as an A-side fighter, which would allow him to dictate terms in any potential negotiations with Thurman, Pacquiao, or whoever wins the Brook-Spence bout in Sheffield, England on May 27. So while Crawford is fighting for a low seven-figure purse against Diaz on Saturday, according to one source, he could approach eight figures were he and an undefeated welterweight champion such as Thurman to step into the ring together. (The NYSAC does not release purse figures)

"If I keep winning, then the opportunities for even bigger fights will present themselves," he said at Thursday's press conference. "I didn't get this far without winning. I'm ready for any opportunities at 140 or 147 pounds. I want to put a show on for everyone on Saturday night. I will make a statement."

First up is Diaz, who Crawford describes as a "worthy challenger," and adding that you "can't bring just any fight to The Garden."

Diaz's only defeat was a controversial decision to Lamont Peterson, who has also moved up to 147 pounds. Since then, the native of the Dominican Republic edged Sammy Vasquez to win a unanimous decision in Alabama last year, although Vasquez was deducted a point for losing his mouth piece and would have otherwise dropped a majority draw to Diaz.

Diaz, a 5-foot-5 southpaw has only a 67-inch reach, so he effectively abandons his jab in favor of power shots, which account for 87% of his landed punches, according to CompuBox.

The problem for anyone who relies so heavily on power shots is that they inevitably leave themselves open for the same kind of punishment, which is why Vasquez was able to connect on 47% of his power shots and Peterson registered 42% of his. (Diaz landed just 34.8% of his power shots over his last four fights, according to CompuBox).

Crawford does not have these kind of issues.

Not only does he rank fifth among CompuBox pound-for-pound plus-minus leaders, landing 14.1% more of the punches he throws than his opponents do; but opponents have connected on only 7.1 punches per round over his last eight fights.

That's less than half of what Crawford's opponents landed (16.9 per round) over his last four appearances.

Seeing as it's unlikely that Diaz will connect with a significant amount of punches on Saturday night, his only chance to beat Crawford is to conjure up an unlikely knockout.

"I'm up for this challenge," he said through a translator on Thursday. "I really believe this will be a war on Saturday night. I'm going to have massive support from my fellow Dominicans. I have a great chance of winning this fight. I see a lot of weaknesses in his game that I know I can take advantage of. He is one of the best, but I have fought at welterweights and he hasn't. I believe I have the power to hurt him."

Crawford throws and lands significantly more jabs than Diaz (27.8 and 6.9 per round, respectively, compared to 16.7 and 2.6 for Diaz).

When he does go to his power punches, Crawford connects 46.1% of the time, and he makes them count. Devotees will remember the overhand left that dropped Henry Lundy in the fifth round of Crawford's TKO win at the MSG Theater in February of 2016.

And besides the athleticism, Crawford is simply too skilled for the opponents he's faced. Not only can he fight out of an orthodox and a southpaw stance, but he can seemingly win in any number of ways. He's overwhelmed opponents while looking for a knockout; he's won as a counter puncher, as he did against Yuriorkis Gamboa in 2014; and he's played it smart by winning on the cards when he's had to.

"I learned a lot from sparring with him," said Olympic silver medalist Shakur Stevenson, the 19-year-old prospect who will fight Carlos Gaston Suarez on Saturday's undercard. "Every punch he threw, even the narrow misses were like, 'wow!'" (Stevenson's fight can be seen on Top Rank's website, whereas Crawford-Diaz will be on HBO following Ray Beltran's bout against Jonathan Maicelo)

It's this abundance of skill and talent that has boxing fans screaming for the guy called "Bud" to move up to 147.

Crawford says he's certain he has enough power to be a welterweight, just as he was certain he'd have success as an amateur despite his relative inexperience.

"I always knew how talented I was," he said. "I had less experience at all the national tournaments, but I'd do tremendous well up against all the people that were considered the best in my division."

That trend has continued in the pros, but until he moves up to welterweight, Crawford risks being overlooked by the general public.