Leonard Ellerbe Believes Terence Crawford, Not Canelo Alvarez, Is The Best Fighter Pound For Pound

By: Hans Themistode

Over the past few years, Canelo Alvarez has truly solidified himself as the best fighter in the world, at least, according to most.

The unified super middleweight champion has gone from weight division to weight division and laid waste to most of the top names. After settling the score with Gennadiy Golovkin, defeating him by majority decision in 2018, Alvarez (56-1-2, 38 KOs) has gone on to defeat Daniel Jacobs for the IBF middleweight title. He then moved up to the light heavyweight division in 2019, stopping Sergey Kovalev in the 11th round and snatching away his WBO title.

Currently, Alvarez has settled in nicely at 168 pounds, defeating most of the titleholders in the division. Still, despite his impressive resume, CEO of Mayweather Promotions in Leonard Ellerbe, doesn’t have the Mexican star at the top of his own personal pound for pound list.

“Canelo is a very good fighter,” said Ellerbe to a group of reporters. “I think he’s a tremendous fighter, but I still personally say Terence Crawford.”

Crawford, 33, has always been mentioned amongst boxing’s best. However, with his lack of a marquee fight over the past few years, Alvarez’s star has shined slightly brighter. Alvarez, on the other hand, has continually fought in high leverage matchups over the years. The Mexican star was hoping to add another impressive name to his resume but was left beside himself as negotiations between himself and IBF super middleweight titlist Caleb Plant broke down.

Alvarez had hoped to secure a showdown with Plant in an attempt to become the division’s first undisputed super middleweight champion of all time. Although both teams worked hard behind the scenes to hammer out a deal, things ended abruptly with both sides deciding to go their separate ways.

Nonetheless, if team Alvarez and team Plant were able to find common ground during the negations, the two were likely to square off on September 18th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In the mind of many, had both Alvarez and Plant swapped fists, the Mexican product was the heavy favorite. While Plant might be an undefeated titleholder, he has failed to face anyone in the upper echelon of the division over the past two years.

Although Ellerbe won’t defend the resume of Plant, he vehemently believes that if the two stepped into the ring against one another, Plant would have walked away with the victory.

“He can’t beat Caleb,” said Ellerbe when discussing a matchup between Alvarez and Plant. “He has all the wrong things for him. Trust and believe that. What you guys have seen is just glimpses of Plant. Styles make fights, he has everything that he needs to beat Canelo. Y’all say he can’t punch but he can punch, he’s a tremendous boxer, he has great defensive skills and most importantly, he’s a thinking fighter.”