August 19th 2017, marked a historic day in the history of boxing and of course, the history of the extremely talented boxer that is Terence “bud” Crawford. As he became only the second boxer in the history of the sport to hold all four world recognised belts in one weight class.

If that wasn’t impressive enough. He did it by dethroning the WBA & IBF light welterweight title holder Julius Indongo, with a devastating third round stoppage victory.

Crawford looked sharp and confident from the opening bell, as the orthodox boxer went southpaw in the first round, catching Indongo with a few early counters.

Crawford’s team seemed to do their homework as their man dealt with Indongo’s wild, in and out style, by making him miss then countering him with hooks and body shots.

This allowed Crawford to drop Indongo in the second, to what most people thought was due to Indongo being off balanced, but Crawford definitely caught him with a shot to the temple.

In the third, Crawford looked even more confident. Indongo tried to come forward but again got countered and then stopped in devastating fashion with a beautiful, yet brutal body shot that made Indongo crumble in agony, unable to get up to answer the 10 count.

It really was a superb and explosive performance and finish by the now undisputed light welterweight champion. He is now undefeated in 32 fights with 23 knockouts, holding all four belts in the division. Something that only Bernard Hopkins has managed to do back in 2004.

It now bodes the question, where does he come in the pound for pound rankings? To me he is right up there, and I mean right up there.

I feel Crawford seems to always be that unfancied, party crasher, where most in the boxing world respect, but never seem to give him the ultimate respect or even, never want to go overboard when praising him.

But he just won’t go away. He has forced the boxing world to respect him.

There have always been questions about his opponents and the calibre of the division. But you can only beat what is put in front of you.

Secondly, he is not only just beating top contenders. He is defeating world champions. Such as Ricky Burns, Yuriorkis Gamboa(former featherweight champion) Ray Beltran. Victor Postol and Julius Indongo.

Every challenge that’s been put in front of him, he has not just been equal to. He has excelled in. He seems to get better with every fight and also seems to have this unique talent where the bigger the challenge, the higher the pressure, the better he performs.

He has demonstrated an improved skill set with every fight. Doing things like fighting southpaw, or fighting on the back foot and still dominating, or going forward, fighting fire with fire and destroying opponents.

He seems to pick shots from improbable angles and looks as though he has every shot in his arsenal. He, not to mention has superb footwork and can be defensive and hard to hit if he wants to.

Last but not least, he has been very active, fighting 13 times in four and half years. Now if that’s not credentials of a pound for pound No1, then I don’t know what is.

For me, there are only a few fighters that can seriously argue that No1 spot with Crawford. The main one is 32-0 Andre Ward.

But you can argue about his inactivity. His two wins against the Krusher, Sergey Kovalev could put him in pole position, but he has only had six fights in the same time Crawford has racked up 13 wins.

37-0 Triple G is another who many think is a contender for that title, but if you’re gonna argue about Crawford’s opponents, then you have to question Triple G’s.

Before the Jacobs fight. Daniele Geale, David Lemeiux and a two weight lighter Kel Brook were the biggest names on his record.

Then Daniel Jacobs became his biggest and hardest test in March. I personally thought he struggled in this fight and should have lost.

His fight against Canelo in September will go a long way to shuffling that pack on the P4P list, as Canelo is another who comes in that p4p argument.

With an almost unmatched record of 49-1, losing only to Mayweather, which is obviously no shame. He has the likes of Kermit Cintron, Shane Mosley. Austin Trout. Erislandy Lara. Miguel Cotto and Julio Cesar Chaves Jr on his record, but a win against Golovkin, to make it his 50th could really elevate him to No1.

For me, there is only one other fighter that can come close to challenging these boxers and that is Roman Gonzalez. After dominating the light flyweight division.

He moved up to flyweight and won the WBC title. Then moved up to super flyweight and won the title in his first bout at that weight.

Unfortunately he lost that title in March with some saying it’s a weight too far for the Nicaraguan, who has a record of 46-1 with 38 KO’s and started as a minimum weight fighter.

But he has a rematch on Sept 9th. If he wins that, it will put him right back in the No1 pound for pound fighter argument.

Apart from those fighters, the likes of Vasyl Lomachenko and Guillermo Rigondeaux are the only other fighters that has the skill set and talent to even be mentioned in the top pound for pound argument.

But I feel neither has had enough fights or top class opposition to be seriously considered at this stage.

But the great thing is, they will be squaring off in December, in a fight I am really looking forward to and it will go a long, long way in showing just how talented either of these fighters really are.

With that said. Following his devastating and convincing victory to claim all four belts in the light welterweight division.

Becoming only the second man in history to complete this feat. When you put all the permutations together. Skill set. Number of fights and recent fight activity. Champions faced. Convincing wins, fighting in more than one weight class…..

If Terence “bud” Crawford is not the current pound for pound No1 boxer. Then he is extremely close.