Boxing
Who are the greatest welterweights of the four-belt era?
Barrios vs Garcia only on DAZN PPV - Saturday
Outside of the heavyweight division, the welterweight division has typically been viewed as the glamour division led by the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Pernell Whitaker, Floyd Mayweather Jr., and Terence Crawford.
The current crop of welterweight champions features Devin Haney (WBO), Rolly Romero (WBA), Mario Barrios (WBC) , and Lewis Crocker (IBF).
Ryan Garcia can enter himself into the conversation when he challenges Barrios for the WBC title on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, live and exclusively on DAZN PPV.
Ahead of Saturday's WBC welterweight title showdown, DAZN News takes a look at who is the cream of the crop in the four-belt era.
The RingTerence Crawford
The only boxer to become the undisputed welterweight champion of the four-belt era. After running through Julius Indongo to become the undisputed super lightweight champion in August, Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs) stormed right up to welterweight and put the entire division on notice in his first time out. In June 2018, Crawford plowed over Jeff Horn to become the WBO champion.
Then it became a game of trying to get Errol Spence Jr. into the ring. "Bud" finally got Spence inside the ring in July 2023. Crawford battered Spence from start to finish, dropping him three times, to win by ninth-round TKO to become the undisputed welterweight champion. In his five-year run at welterweight, Crawford went 8-0 with eight knockouts.
Truly the best welterweight of this era.
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
Before Crawford, there was Mayweather. This is the division where the world saw the transformation of "Pretty Boy Floyd" to "Money Mayweather".
He began his 147-pound journey with a sixth-round TKO win over Sharmba Mitchell in November 2005. From there, Mayweather (50-0, 27 KOs) won all four welterweight titles, but never at the same time. He dominated the division with superior defense, speed, and precision. Mayweather set the PPV record of 4.6 million when he dominated the "Fight of the Century" against Manny Pacquiao.
He went 12-0 with three knockouts in becoming the guy who put the welterweight division back on the map at a time when the heavyweights were the talk of boxing.
Manny Pacquiao
Before coming to the welterweight division, Pacquiao (62-8-3, 39 KOs) was already a superstar. But when the "Pac-Man" made the trek up to welterweight, he became a global superstar. On December 6, 2008, Pacquiao thrashed Oscar De La Hoya to the point where "The Golden Boy" couldn't answer the bell for the ninth round to vault him into another stratosphere.
Pacquiao went 14-5-1 with three knockouts against the likes of De La Hoya, Miguel Cotto, Mayweather, Keith Thurman, and Timothy Bradley (three times). Boxing's only eight-division world champion also won two belts in the welterweight division.
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