WBO welterweight champion Terence Crawford believes he's the top pound-for-pound fighter in the sport.
He captured gold at lightweight, unified the entire junior welterweight division, and now holds the WBO title at welterweight.
For the better part of the year, many experts had pegged him as the top pound-for-pound man.
But last month, some experts have downgraded his position - and elevated Canelo Alvarez to the top pound-for-pound spot.
Canelo jumped up by two weight divisions to score a knockout of Sergey Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight title. Canelo has now captured a version of a world title at 154, 160, 168 and 175.
But Crawford is not overly impressed with Canelo's win over Kovalev.
Kovalev, while much bigger, is already near the end of his career at age 36. He also suffered knockout defeats, including one to Eleider Alvarez last year. He was nearly derailed in August by Anthony Yarde, but rallied back to stop the young challenger a few rounds later.
Now if Canelo would have stopped some like IBF, WBC champion Artur Beterbiev at 175, then Crawford would have no dispute with Canelo being hailed as the pound-for-pound king.
"You’re supposed to look into who this fighter beat at the time this fighter beat [them]. You’re supposed to look into who the fighter previously beat. Let’s look at Canelo. Everybody’s saying he’s pound-for-pound by beating [Sergey] Kovalev, right, because he went up in weight. Kovalev is how old?," Crawford told Complex.
"[36], that’s old in boxing. He’s been stopped before. He’s been beat before. It’s nothing that hasn’t already happened to this fighter. So we already know this fighter has been in this position before. So why is everybody so surprised when Canelo does it? Now if he would have fought Artur Beterbiev, he didn’t call him out.
"[Beterbiev is much bigger and younger] and it’s the same weight. If he would’ve did that to a guy like that then it would’ve been like 'Whoa' There’s no argument."