David Benavidez has revealed the only fighter that he believes is even greater than pound-for-pound star Terence Crawford.
‘Bud’ Crawford wrote his name into the boxing history books yet again on September 13 when he defeated Canelo Alvarez to capture the undisputed super-middleweight championship, extending his unbeaten record to 42-0.
The 38-year-old from Omaha put on an outstanding display against the Mexican icon to become the first male fighter in the sport’s history to win an undisputed championship in three separate divisions, having previously achieved this feat at super-lightweight and welterweight.
Although many boxing fans and analysts believe Crawford now deserves to be regarded as the best active fighter on the planet following his victory over Canelo, reigning WBC light-heavyweight champion Benavidez has spoken out and claimed that there is one fighter in particular that ranks ahead of ‘Bud’.
In an interview with Fight Hype, Benavidez made no mistake in naming Ukrainian superstar Oleksandr Usyk as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world, ranking the reigning undisputed heavyweight champion higher than ‘Bud’ Crawford.
“I think Usyk number one without a doubt. I don’t think nobody even comes close to Usyk because of the amount of big fights he’s taken back to back to back to back you know?
“Even from when he was in cruiserweight he was fighting the best fighters and then he went to the heavyweight division and nobody really gave him that much of a chance, he went and took everybody out.”
Usyk cemented himself as arguably the best heavyweight of his entire generation back in July when he stopped Britain’s Daniel Dubois in the fifth round of their Wembley Stadium clash, becoming the first fighter of the ‘four belt era’ to win the undisputed heavyweight title on two separate occasions.
