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Brook was still undefeated as a welterweight. There's no comparison between versions.
Mikey Garcia was considered by almost all of the rating orgs to be a Top 5 welterweight. Blame his fans for bigging him up as a threat to Spence when logic dictated he wasn't.
But Mikey is actually a good point - Crawford isn't a legit welter either. That's why he's never been able to do to any of his 147 opponents what he did to Gamboa - the power didn't come up.
Remember though, Shawn Porter debuted at 154. He won a title at 154, like a third of his fights and 13 out of 17 of his knockouts and stoppages were when he was at 154. So he's a big welterweight like Spence. You're talking two comparatively big guys against someone who's basically a jr. welterweight. That's the thing nobody's talking about but should.
You know how I see this fight going?
Porter/Malignaggi. Minus the stoppage. I say it goes the distance, but I say Crawford will get all he can handle and will be seriously hurt against this guy.
Paulie at that time picked off at range and had great foot movement identical to what Crawford does. But just like Crawford, tended to lose his temper and get into wars unnecessarily; clipped in those exchanges just like Crawford, and Shawn Porter destroyed him with arguably his best overall performance.
Now, the thing is, the version of Porter that fought Spence was 3x the version that fought Paulie. The man is more dangerous now. He doesn't make nearly as many silly mistakes and he's smarter about accuracy, I also argue his chin is more solid than it was and he's a smarter boxer too, clearly evident in the shutout against Formella who WAS landing on him.
Last and most important: Porter has fought at the top level for YEARS. Wars for YEARS. And it's made him ready for the dance, that's experience with tough challenges. Crawford has not had a top level fight in at least 5 years - I frankly think his last real top level challenge was Ricky Burns - and Burns took him the full distance. No top level experience at 147 which has more dangerous people.
That's why I said Crawford should have taken Keef on first. Keef was off a loss, but still a threat, which would have given him big fight 147 experience. I think Porter will be too much.
Either way, it's certainly interesting.
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