Tony Bellew thinks one man would be a step too far for generational great Terence Crawford.
Omaha’s Crawford is a three-weight undisputed champion, having cleaned out the super-lightweight, welterweight and most recently the super-middleweight division with his superb display last time out against the equally great Canelo Alvarez.
Speaking recently on X, former cruiserweight world champion Bellew reminded everyone that he picked Crawford to beat Canelo and had plenty of praise for the American’s winning performance.
“Wow just wow!! When they first mentioned this fight I was laughed at for picking him! People wanna say he’s boring! Nothing boring about pure boxing and perfection! Game plan was on point and Bud was exceptional! He’s now amongst the boxing gods!”
It was then suggested that ‘Bud’ would also be able to beat former undisputed light heavyweight king Dmitry Bivol, but Bellew disagreed.
“No chance… that’s a step too far…”
Bivol beat Artur Beterbiev back in February to wrestle all four belts off his opponent, who had won them in their first fight in October 2014. Both were close contests, and that is the only loss on Bivol’s ledger, with the other standout win being Canelo on points back in 2022.
He has since vacated the WBC belt in order to prioritise a potential trilogy bout with Beterbiev, with that belt now in the possession of David Benavidez.
Whether or not Crawford’s remarkable rise through the weights could see him move up one more division is yet to be seen, though Teddy Atlas also worries that moving down the weights again could be just as dangerous. There has been speculation that Bivol may push himself to make the 168 limit for a Crawford bout, but how the man himself feels about this is unclear. He was willing to do so for a Canelo rematch some years ago.
