Terence Crawford has been named the 2018 ESPY Best Fighter for his
wins over WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn, Julius Indongo and Felix
Diaz. It’s a nice accomplishment for the 30-year-old Crawford to get the
ESPY award, but his biggest win was over Horn, a fighter that won a
controversial 12 round decision over Manny Pacquiao last year.
Horn was seen as an undeserving world champion. Crawford’s win over
Horn is less impressive when you factor in the Australian’s questionable
win over Pacquiao last year.
It’s obviously a subjective thing in Crawford winning the ESPY aware
instead of Errol Spence Jr., who is arguably a better fighter than him.
Spence has a far better win on his resume from last year in defeating
Kell Brook than Crawford does with his three wins. Further, Vasyl
Lomachenko did more than Crawford to earn the award, and yet he didn’t
it either. Crawford didn’t fight Regis Prograis, the fighter that is
considered by many boxing fans as the best fighter at 140.
Crawford being named the ESPY 2018 Best Fighter winning is highly
questionable, because his wins were largely over weak opposition. Former
World Boxing Organization welterweight champion Jeff Horn isn’t
considered in the same class as the talented fighters at 147 like Errol
Spence Jr., Danny Garcia, Keith Thurman and Shawn Porter. Crawford’s win
over Horn wasn’t a big deal.
Perhaps the fighter that deserves to be the 2018 ESPY winner for Best
Fighter is Vasyl Lomachenko. Here are Lomachenko’s best wins since
2017:
– Jorge Linares
– Guillermo Rigondeaux
– Miguel Marriaga
– Jason Sosa
For a lot of boxing fans, Lomachenko has the far better wins on his
resume since 2017 compared to Crawford. Lomachenko’s win over Linares
alone is enough for him to deserve the ESPY aware in my opinion.
I see these fighters as more deserving than Crawford in winning the 2018 ESPY award:
1. Vasyl Lomachenko
2. Errol Spence Jr.
3. Srisaket Sor Rungvisai
4. Deontay Wilder
5. Anthony Joshua
6. Murat Gassiev
7. Oleksandr Usyk
8. Jarrett Hurd
9. Gennady Golovkin
Those guys all had better wins than the victories that Crawford had
in 2017 and 2018. GGG was held to a draw against Saul Canelo Alvarez
last year, but he fought well enough to deserve the victory. That puts
GGG above Crawford in my view.
The lack of quality wins on Crawford’s resume over the last year
makes him a suspect ESPY winner. Hopefully next year they do a better
job of picking a fighter with some solid wins on their resume because
this year’s choice was very disappointing. You’ve got to feel bad for
Lomachenko, because he did more than enough to deserve the ESPY award
this year.
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