Terence Crawford has staggering KO streak stretching back eight years that cements status as successor to Floyd Mayweather

07/29/2024 10:10 AM

Pound-for-pound great Terence Crawford is on a stunning knockout streak.

The former three-weight world champion has stopped his last 11 opponents stretching back to 2016.

To make the feat even more impressive, every single one of those wins came in a world title fight.

Crawford kicked off his impressive run by finishing John Molina Jr inside eight rounds in December 2016 to retain his WBC and WBO light-welterweight belts.

The likes of Amir Khan, Kell Brook, and Shawn Porter fell to him in the following years as he picked up all the major sanctioning body belts at 140lbs.

Crawford then went on to cement his legacy as an all-time great by knocking out Errol Spence 10 months ago to become undisputed champion at welterweight.

This marked the first time a male fighter had been crowned a two-weight undisputed champion in the four-belt era – although Naoya Inoue and Oleksandr Usyk have since followed suit.

‘Bud’ is now 40-0 as a pro and is quickly closing in on Floyd Mayweather‘s unblemished 50-0 record.

‘TBE’ won world titles in five different weight classes but never achieved undisputed status during his 21-year stint in the paid ranks.

The closest Mayweather came to unifying all the belts was in 2015 when he defeated Manny Pacquiao for the WBC, WBA, and WBO welterweight titles.

However, Mayweather refused to pay a sanctioning fee to the WBO after the fight and was subsequently stripped of their version of the world title.

Crawford is looking to further close the gap on Mayweather’s legacy by going for his fourth world title this weekend.

He faces Israil Madrimov for the Uzbek’s WBA super-welterweight strap at Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium in Riyadh Season’s first overseas card.

Madrimov, like Crawford, is known for his heavy hands with seven stoppage wins from 11 fights (10-0-1).

His power was on full display in his last outing when he knocked out Magomed Kurbanov in Saudi Arabia to win his world title.

Crawford, who boasts 31 knockouts during his illustrious career, has carried the stopping power at every weight class he has fought in.

Whether he is still a big puncher at 154lbs will become abundantly clear when he dukes it out with Madrimov in his divisional debut.

While Crawford looks to further cement his status as a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, Mayweather continues to compete beyond his professional retirement.

The 47-year-old hung up his gloves in 2017 after beating former two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor but now makes easy money boxing in exhibition bouts fighting YouTubers, reality TV stars, and everything in between.

His last outing against John Gotti III in June 2023 ended in a no-contest after the fight was stopped due to ‘excessive trash talk’ from both fighters.

He is now set to rematch Gotti III on August 24 in Mexico City.

Mayweather had originally declared that he was boxing Victor Ortiz on the same date.

However, that fight didn’t come to fruition.