Terence Crawford looks beyond past knockouts in belief that Amir Khan could be his best opponent yet

So far 34 have tried and 34 have failed to beat the American during a glittering professional career

Despite already amassing the sort of record which has prompted many to anoint him the pound-for-pound king of boxing, Terence Crawford believes Amir Khan could be his best opponent yet.

Some bookmakers are offering odds as long as 5/1 on the British underdog to inflict the first defeat of Crawford’s career on 20 April, in either Las Vegas or New York.

So far 34 have tried and 34 have failed to beat Crawford during a glittering professional career which has already yielded world titles at three different weights. Now the WBO welterweight champion, Crawford moved up last year having unified all four major titles at light-welter.

It is little surprise, then, that Khan, beaten four times, three of those inside the distance, has been widely written off. But overwhelming favourite Crawford insists he is not overlooking his opponent from Bolton.

“I’ve fought a lot of top fighters in my career and he’s definitely one of the best,” softly-spoken Crawford said by way of assessment.

The two men go head to head on 20 April (Getty)

“I don’t know if he would start as the favourite against everyone I’ve fought but he’s one of the best I’ve fought so far.

“Yes he has been knocked out before but I never look at that because people who look at that stuff go into a fight looking for the knockout.

“Then that’s all they look for and if it doesn’t come they’ve been outpointed and outboxed because they’ve spent the whole night looking for that one punch.

“I go in there looking to set the pace, take away his strengths and get the job done.”

The spring fight has been justifiably labelled as a collision between a man at the peak of his powers in Crawford and a faded star looking for one last hurrah. But, surprisingly, 32-year-old Khan is just nine months older than the switch-hitting Nebraskan.

Even so, Khan shot to prominence far earlier than Crawford, known as ‘Bud’ to his friends, who was little more than a promising teenage amateur when his next opponent clinched silver at the 2004 Olympics in Athens.

Also during those games, a Cuban called Yuriorkis Gamboa won gold down at flyweight. Like Khan, Gamboa later turned professional amid much fanfare and raced to his first world title within 16 fights in 2009.

Only a few months earlier, meanwhile, Crawford had been shot in the head after a dice game under a street light on an Omaha street corner. It is no surprise, then, that he never expected to face the likes of Gamboa and Khan, who were lighting up the Olympic Games while he was, as he puts it, ‘heavy in the streets’.

“I watched all boxing, especially around my weight class because you never know. Like I never imagined that I’d fight Gamboa,” added Crawford, who emphatically handed the Cuban the first loss of his professional career when they met in 2014.

“When that fight happened I was just thinking ‘man, I never imagined I’d fight you’. So when the fight happened it was just like ‘alright, I’m knocking you out’. I don’t care who you’ve fought or what you think you’re going to do to me – I’ve got to beat you.

Crawford has spoken highly of his Bolton opponent (Getty)

“There are Amir Khan fights I watched back in the day which made me think, ‘I’ll never fight you’ either. But now that we’re here, you’ve got to make the best of it.”

So far, Crawford has not put a foot wrong and only imperious peers like Vasyl Lomachenko, Oleksandr Usyk and Saul Alvarez have precluded him from cementing his spot at the top of the mythical pound-for-pound rankings. Not that he cares.

“It’s an opinion,” he said. “I feel like I’m No 1 pound-for-pound.

“Some people might say I’m second, some people might say I’m third but it’s just an opinion. It’s not like we get any reward for it, any money for it or anything else.

“It’s just, ‘You’re No. 1 pound for pound’ and it’s like, ‘Alright, cool’. That’s it. It’s just an opinion.

“I’m putting more on the line than Amir Khan in this fight. I’m putting everything on the line. But I felt that having a name like Amir Khan on my resume, that boosts my status as well.

“There’s a lot on the line but at the same time I’m getting something back in return.”