Boxing

Stephen A. Smith Settles Terence Crawford And Floyd Mayweather Debate With One Key Point

Terence Crawford's master performance against Canelo Alvarez didn't change Stephen A. Smith's sentiment about Floyd "Money" Mayweather.
Grant Young|
Oct 23, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Stephen A. Smith (Stephen Smith) on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
Oct 23, 2024; Inglewood, California, USA; Stephen A. Smith (Stephen Smith) on the ESPN NBA Countdown live set at Intuit Dome. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images | Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

If you're a boxing fan, you know that Terence Crawford defeated Canelo Alvarez during their iconic superfight on September 13, thus making Crawford the undisputed super middleweight champion and the first male boxer to ever capture three unified division titles.

There's no doubt that Crawford can be considered the greatest fighter of this era after jumping up two weight classes to beat Canelo. The most pertinent question is now whether he's the greatest male boxer of this century, with the only other person who could potentially compete with him in this regard being undefeated former world champion Floyd "Money" Mayweather.

Canelo Alvarez is now the only man to have fought both Crawford and Mayweather. And he made his opinion on which is better extremely clear during his post-fight press conference, when he said, "I think Crawford is way better than Floyd Mayweather."

Stephen A. Smith Weighs In on Terence Crawford, Floyd Mayweather Debate

Sports media juggernaut Stephen A. Smith was interviewed by FightHype moments after the Crawford vs. Canelo fight ended, and offered several strong opinions about what he just witnessed.

Stephen A. Smith , American sports television personality, walks on the field on December 21, 2024
Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images

"I'm not surprised. I took [Crawford] to win by decision coming into the fight. Watching Canelo in his career, it was expected that he wasn't gonna get knocked out, especially by the smaller man. But did Crawford have enough power and boxing skills to keep Canelo off of him to some degree? For the most part, that answer was yes," Smith said, per a video on FightHype's YouTube.

"But then [Crawford] stepped in there, and he exchanged on several occasions, and survivved, and prospered. And I gotta give credit where credit is due," Smith added. "I expected the boxing superiority, but what I didn't expect was for him to stand in there and exchange, and survive. And he did that on several occasions, and that's why he deseres so much credit."

Smith was then asked whether Crawford is better than Floyd Mayweather and offered an interesting response.

"I'm not gonna sit up here and say that. I think that Floyd Mayweather was such a magician defensively. You have to look at Floyd 'Money' Mayweather in this regard: Once he moved up to welterweight, his hands were always damaged. So he kinda knew he wasn't gonna be able to knock you out, for the most part. And still, he walked into the ring and put on masterful performances because he was so superior, skill-wise and defensively."

"Tonight, with Crawford, we saw him take a punch on several occasions. With Floyd, we didn't see that too often because you couldn't hit him. That's the difference," he concluded.

It will be interesting to see the reaction to Smith's sentiment.

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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.