Terence Crawford has received plenty of plaudits recently, but one Hall of Fame fighter claims he isn’t on his level, along with Shakur Stevenson, believing that neither man is in the class he was in when he was active.
Crawford hung up the gloves back in December after defeating Canelo Alvarez and he has since been praised as one of the greatest fighters of the modern era, having reigned as undisputed champion in three weight classes.
Meanwhile, Stevenson is being heralded as one of boxing’s current best off the back of a one-sided decision victory against Teofimo Lopez, claiming a 119-109 decision on all three of the judges’ scorecards and becoming the the sport’s third-youngest four-division world champion in the process.
However, despite the efforts of both men, former three-weight world champion James Toney told FightHype that their wins have not been dominant or destructive enough to warrant the same recognition as him.
“He looked good, alright, but it wasn’t no James Toney performance, you know that. Every time that I fought on the big stage, [Iran] Barkley, [Evander] Holyfield, John Ruiz and countless others – I am dominating them.
Terence Crawford, I love Terence Crawford, but he didn’t even do what I did. He didn’t do it, but he won 12 rounds. I did damage, I stopped people, I knocked people out, that is why they called me ‘Lights Out’.”
At 28 years old, there is plenty of time for Stevenson to further etch his name into the history books, with a possible move to the welterweight division potentially presenting the Newark southpaw with the opportunity to become boxing’s seventh five-division champion.