Oscar De La Hoya said Floyd Mayweather Jr. was a technically superior fighter to Terence Crawford, putting the unbeaten retired star above one of boxing’s most accomplished champions. De La Hoya made the comparison while pointing to Mayweather’s control of his 2013 fight with Canelo Alvarez and saying Crawford, by contrast, absorbed more punishment in the ring.
De La Hoya said Mayweather “toyed” with Canelo and insisted the fight never turned into a trading match. “He didn’t get hit at all, not one time,” he said, adding that Crawford is “more of a fighter-boxer” while Mayweather is “more of a boxer.”
The comparison carries weight because Crawford retired last year after defeating Canelo Alvarez to become the undisputed super middleweight champion, adding to a career that also included undisputed titles at welterweight and junior welterweight. Mayweather, who beat De La Hoya in 2007 and later defeated Manny Pacquiao, Shane Mosley and Juan Manuel Marquez, remains a reference point in boxing debates built around defense, control and clean punching.
That is the friction in De La Hoya’s view: Crawford’s résumé is built on moving through weight classes and winning in multiple divisions, while Mayweather’s legacy rests on making elite opponents miss and taking little damage. Even so, De La Hoya said he had to disagree with the idea that Crawford belongs at the top of that technical conversation. “I think Mayweather is much more superior than Crawford,” he said, adding, “Not just because he beat me and it was a close fight, or that I stepped in the ring with Mayweather, but I really feel that, technically, Mayweather’s a better fighter.”
The comments add another layer to the long-running comparison between two fighters separated by eras but linked by elite skill. For De La Hoya, the answer remains Mayweather.
