Boxing

Ex-Boxing Champion With 20 KOs Claims He'd Knock Terence Crawford Out

One former super middleweight champion thinks he would have put Terence Crawford's lights out if they had fought.
Grant Young|
Terence Crawford speaks to media on September 13, 2025.
Terence Crawford speaks to media on September 13, 2025. | IMAGO / Hoganphotos

Most boxing fans have Terence Crawford as their No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter right now after his unanimous decision victory over Canelo Alvarez last month.

Not only did Crawford look like a generational talent in this 12-round bout, but adding Canelo's name and taking his undisputed super middleweight belts on to an already impressive resumé (that includes Crawford being the first male boxer to be an undisputed champion in three weight classes) makes it tough for anybody to claim they have an upper hand against Crawford right now, both in the ring and in pound-for-pound rankings.

However, the beauty about many boxers is that they're often delusional, which breeds both greatness and insanity. And it seems that one former champion's delusion is convincing him he could knock Crawford out cold.

Terence Crawford on September 9, 2025.
Terence Crawford on September 9, 2025. | IMAGO / Hoganphotos

George Groves Makes Bold Terence Crawford Claim

George Groves is a 37-year-old ex-fighter from Britain who held the WBA super middleweight title from 2017 to 2018. He finished his career with a 28-4 record (20 KOs) and hasn't fought since 2018, when he lost his WBA super middleweight belt to Callum Smith.

Groves was interviewed by PokerStrategy.com on October 7 and didn't mince words about how he'd match up against Crawford.

"I highly admire Crawford, but surely he wouldn’t have beaten me? I would have done him," Groves said, suggesting he'd knock Crawford out.

Despite this bold claim, Groves also gave Crawford his well-earned respect by saying, "I'll put him at number one pound for pound because he's not a super middleweight and he went up and beat a super middleweight. And this is what makes boxing so peculiar because Canelo's sort of beating everyone at super middleweight, but you think if there's a big super middleweight out there, could Crawford beat them? At the moment he’s struggling to find the super middleweights."

When speaking about what Crawford should do next in his career, Groves added, "I'm not sure where Crawford goes for me. I would be more than happy for him to call it a day. It'd be sad to never see him box again, but without anyone else to fight and coming back down to welterweight or even lightweight might be difficult at this stage.

"Maybe Triple G, Golovkin will actually come back and give Crawford a run for his money. Crawford against Triple G. Does Triple G need a warmup fight? Maybe he should have one."

Props to Groves for still believing in his past abilities. But there's surely nobody else in the world who thinks he would have beaten Crawford if they ever matched up.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.