Terence Crawford rightly received his flowers for a career-defining win over Canelo Alvarez, but former undisputed heavyweight champion Mike Tyson had even more praise for “Bud.”
Becoming undisputed at super-middleweight gave Crawford his third championship clean sweep, having already achieved the feat at super-lightweight and welterweight.
Having started his career at lightweight (135lbs), the proud Omaha native moved up to 168lbs to face Canelo, who hadn’t lost since an unsuccessful jump to light-heavyweight (175lbs) against Dmitry Bivol three years ago.
On September 13 at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, Crawford boxed superbly to dethrone Canelo and take all four super-middleweight world titles back to Nebraska.
Speaking to hardrock, Tyson — who ruled the heavyweight division in the 1980s — compared Crawford to another multi-weight great — Henry Armstrong.
“That was beautiful, incredible. You have got to give him all the respect in the world. He climbed the mountain, and he conquered it. He’s like Henry Armstrong.
“Henry Armstrong won the welterweight title at 126 pounds. Can you imagine that? At 126 pounds, he won the welterweight title, he beat the welterweight champ.
“That’s never been heard, that’ll probably never be done again in modern boxing. The featherweight champion beating the welterweight champion.”
Armstrong competed from 1931 to 1945 and is the only fighter to ever hold world titles in three divisions simultaneously, having done so at featherweight, lightweight and welterweight. He ended his career with a record of 151 wins from 183 fights.
Tyson also gave his view on who Crawford should face next.
“I want to see Crawford fight Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. I want to see him fight one of the Charlo brothers too.”
Ennis is currently competing at super-welterweight, where he appears to be on a collision course with division rival Vergil Ortiz Jr after the pair recently faced off in the ring.
