In 2023, Terence Crawford Delivered the Performance of the Year

In 2023, Terence Crawford Delivered the Performance of the Year

It’s not enough for a really good fighter to be a world champion these days. With the proliferation of alphabet sanctioning bodies and their penchant for adding weight classes, which can include “super” and “regular” versions of the same title, it takes something more, like a catchy acronym, to signify that a generational talent has risen above the madding crowd of more standard-issue belt-holders. “Pound-for-pound” royalty was more or less created so that the great Sugar Ray Robinson could sit upon that mythical throne, and later on Muhammad Ali was hailed as boxing’s GOAT (Greatest of All Time) and Floyd Mayweather Jr. as its TBE (The Best Ever), and so what if those preening, supremely talented and ultra-confident guys placed those crowns upon their own heads. When you’re actually as splendid at your rough trade as you claim to be, it ain’t bragging; it’s merely acknowledging a widely accepted truth.

No such regal acronym has been attached to undisputed welterweight ruler Terence “Bud” Crawford since he fully unified the 147-pound division on July 29 with a stunningly easy, ninth-round stoppage of supposedly near-equal Errol Spence Jr. in Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena, but one could be forthcoming if and when Spence, who has invoked a contractual rematch clause, again shares a ring with the Nebraskan and again is tuned up as if he were a mere novice.

For lack of something more appropriate, let’s just give Crawford his props as winner of TSS’ PTF (Performance of the Year) for 2023, which was such a flawless thing of beauty that it has placed him atop many experts’ pound-for-pound ratings and into the conversation as one of the best ever in his current weight class. Should the 35-year-old Crawford again make the highly regarded Spence appear ordinary, and add another couple of career-defining victories against similarly elite competition, his name could soon be mentioned, if it isn’t already, alongside those of welterweight legends Robinson, Sugar Ray Leonard, Pernell Whitaker, Thomas Hearns, Jose Napoles, Manny Pacquiao and Mayweather. In fact, Crawford (40-0, 31 KOs) thinks he’s already done enough to merit membership in that highly exclusive club, and if he’s not quite there yet he’s definitely on the waiting list.

“I only dreamed of being a world champion,” said Crawford, who came into the brawl for it all with only the WBO title and left with Spence’s WBC WBA and IBF hardware. “I’m an overachiever. Nobody believed in me when I was coming up, but I made everybody a believer. I want to thank Spence and his team because without him none of this would have been possible.”

Raging barstool debates can easily be imagined in light of the fact that TSS’ Fighter of the Year designation for 2023 went to the heralded Japanese super bantamweight, Naoya “The Monster” Inoue, Crawford’s foremost rival at this time for the top spot on most pound-for-pound totem poles. It’s a fair point. But turning in the most electrifying performance on any given night, if it’s the only night in which you step inside the ropes in a fight that counts on your record, sometimes can be interpreted as merely good, or even exceptional fortune. Doing it twice, as Inoue did, might constitute a pattern.

What is interesting about Crawford is that as accomplished as he has been in a professional career that dates back to 2008, his star only recently started to shine so brightly, after years of his being overlooked and underappreciated. His is an amazing story, if only for the fact he might not have made it this far at all. Bud, then 20, a fledgling 3-0 pro from the non-boxing hotbed of Omaha, Neb., was shot in the back of the head while sitting in his car after he participated in a back-alley craps game with some menacing characters in his hometown.

“The window slowed (the bullet) down,” he recalled. “I was blessed. That’s when I sat down and just thought about life. I could’ve been dead at that moment. Since then, I’ve had a purpose.”

That purpose was to become a world champion and a heralded one at that. But the road to arrival as an overnight sensation can be long, rutted and fraught with frustration. His then-promoter, Top Rank founder Bob Arum, had this to say to tableSPORT regarding his decision to let his company’s contract with Crawford lapse:

“Terence Crawford, I think, is clearly one of the best fighters in the world,” Arum opined. “Unfortunately, we’ve lost money on every fight that he’s done and he keeps insisting – and I can understand his point of view — `I’m the best, I should be paid like the best,’ so if somebody is willing to come and put up the money that Crawford is demanding, he should do a fight for some other promoter.”

It should be noted that Crawford promoted himself for the much-anticipated Spence showdown, which was staged before a sellout crowd of 19,900 in the T-Mobile Arena and did such healthy pay-per-view numbers that he reportedly earned $25 million, far and away his best payday. He floored Spence (28-1, 22 KOs) for the first time in his career in the third round and twice more in the seventh before referee Harvey Dock stepped in to halt the bludgeoning at the 2:32 mark of round nine.

Also an undisputed champion at junior welterweight, Crawford – a superb counterpuncher, he switches from orthodox to southpaw seamlessly, but is more effective as a lefty – has now knocked out 11 straight opponents, including all eight he’s faced since moving up to 147 pounds.

Now, for that acronym. Maybe he can strike a deal with Anheuser-Busch to co-opt one of their advertising slogans. How does TBFY (This Bud’s For You) sound?

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Bernard Fernandez, named to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in the Observer category with the Class of 2020, was the recipient of numerous awards for writing excellence during his 28-year career as a sports writer for the Philadelphia Daily News. “Championship Rounds, Round 4,” the fourth installment of Fernandez’s four-volume anthology, is now out and available via Amazon and other book-selling outlets.

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