Terence Crawford was once floored by an unbeaten opponent he rated above Canelo Alvarez

In December 2019, Crawford walked into Madison Square Garden to defend his WBO welterweight belt for the third time, a title he had taken from Jeff Horn a year and a half earlier.

The lead-up had its share of controversy. In his previous fight against Amir Khan, Crawford landed an early low blow that left the Brit unable to continue. Virgil Hunter threw in the towel, giving ‘Bud’ a TKO win that still sparks debate.

He moved past that chapter eight months later, stopping Egidijus Kavaliauskas in the ninth round after putting him down three times. But that fight brought up another talking point – one focused more on what did not happen than what did.

Kavaliauskas was 21-0-1 and known for his power at the time. He appeared to hurt Crawford in the third round and sent him to the canvas shortly after. However, calls for a knockdown were waved off by the referee, who instead called it a slip.

Many fans and analysts disagreed with that call then – and some still do – recognising ‘Mean Machine’ as the only fighter to put ‘Bud’ on the deck.

Kavaliauskas could not capitalise on that moment, though. He ended up being stopped in nine rounds, joining Crawford’s growing list of opponents who came close but could not quite get over the line.

Terence Crawford rates Egidijus Kavaliauskas’ power above Canelo Alvarez

Given that some people feel Kavaliauskas dropped him in their fight, it was not too surprising to hear Crawford praise the Lithuanian’s punching power.

In fact, after his win over Canelo in Las Vegas last September, Crawford even said Kavaliauskas hit harder than the Mexican.

He stated at the post-fight press conference: “I’ve been hit harder in a real fight. ‘Mean Machine’ hit harder than Canelo, to me, to be honest.”