David Benavidez says ‘without a doubt’ there is still a fighter better than Terence Crawford
Terence Crawford made his strongest case yet for recognition as the number one pound-for-pound boxer in the world by beating Canelo Alvarez. But a former super middleweight champion thinks otherwise.
Crawford created history by defeating the former super middleweight king to win all four world titles and claim his third undisputed triumph.
Between Crawford and fellow undisputed champions Oleksandr Usyk (heavyweight) and Naoya Inoue (super bantamweight), arguments can be made for one of them to be number one.
David Benavidez, who won the super middleweight world title eight years ago, now moves up to light heavyweight and looks to be a thorn in the side of divisional top dogs Dmitry Bivol and Artur Beterbiev. A win over either would put Benavidez, 30-0 (24 KOs), into the top 10 pound-for-pound, but who does the 28-year-old have as number one? A few weeks after his WBC title defense against Anthony Yarde, he shared his thoughts in a video posted to FightHype.
“I think Usyk is number one without a doubt. I don’t think anyone comes close to Usyk because of the number of big fights he’s had. Even from the time he was at cruiserweight he was fighting the best fighters and then he went to the heavyweight division and no one really gave him that much of a chance. He went and knocked everyone out.”
And at two o’clock?
“Terence Crawford. He did something I didn’t think he was going to do: he beat Canelo. That’s three weight classes going up. He made it look pretty easy. You have to give it to Crawford.”
Of the three, however, Benavidez believes Inoue is missing something to elevate him to the top spot.
“Inoue needs that big signature win. Inoue is definitely a great pound-for-pound fighter. An incredible fighter, an incredible talent, but he still needs that signature win that really puts him over the mountain.”
Inoue himself returns to action in December, as he defends his undisputed super bantamweight crown against David Picasso.
