Terence Crawford has welcomed comparisons to the legendary Sugar Ray Leonard and considers himself the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
The unbeaten Crawford will put his WBO welterweight title on the line against Amir Khan at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday.
It represents a daunting task for Khan, given Crawford is a three-weight world champion and considered among the pound-for-pound greats.
Famed promoter Bob Arum stated this week that Crawford belongs in the same bracket as Leonard.
"Anybody who knows anything in boxing knows that someone like Terence Crawford comes along very seldom. The closest I know that I promoted was the great Sugar Ray Leonard. Terence reminds me of Sugar Ray Leonard," Arum said.
And Crawford is all too happy to accept such acclaim.
"Of course, I like the comparisons because Sugar Ray is a hall-of-fame fighter," Crawford told Omnisport.
"He's one of the best fighters to ever lace up a pair of gloves. Why not be among greats yourself?"
Crawford has previously spoken about a potential unification fight with IBF strap-holder Errol Spence Jr.
And the 31-year-old, who has a 34-0 record with 25 knockouts to his name, sees no reason why he cannot unify a competitive division.
"Of course [I can unify the belts], I feel like I'm the number one welterweight in the division," he added.
"I rank myself number one pound-for-pound."
Khan enters the fight as underdog and has historically faced criticism over a perceived weak chin, but Crawford is taking nothing for granted against the Briton.
"That's [Khan's chin] nothing that I'm worried about, my job is to worry about going in there and getting the job done and not going in there looking for the knockout," he said.
"I'm going to go in there to fight my fight and if the knockout comes, it comes, if it don't, it don't, as long as I'm up on the scorecard."
2023-10-23 03:15:08
