Long before the ring had vanished and the seats had been placed in storage, Canelo Alvarez started a debate that will not easily fade.

An hour before the declaration, Alvarez had lost his titles and his position as boxing’s number one attraction when Terence Crawford fought a masterclass of power, patience and bravery to beat the Mexican idol. Crawford was brilliant, Alvarez had no answer at times and never offered a single excuse.

The streets of Las Vegas were still bright but about 70,000 had no idea what had happened in the ring; Crawford had made it look easy at times and all fears of him being overpowered were lost a long time before his fist was raised. It was magic in a city of fabled magicians.

Alvarez was dignified in defeat, perhaps realising that a professional career of 68 fights over a period of 21 years can take a heavy toll on the body, the soul and the mind. He held the microphone, coughed, paused and then, glancing over at Crawford, said: “Crawford is way better than Floyd Mayweather.” The words mattered because they came from the fallen king of the city.

In 2013, when Alvarez was only 23, Mayweather beat the Mexican and did it in style; Alvarez was given a boxing lesson in a fight that many believed would be the end of Mayweather’s time. The loss made Alvarez a better fighter and eventually boxing’s biggest attraction, and Mayweather simply carried on accepting fights that made sense, delaying other bouts and ignoring some entirely.

Alvarez was, in theory, in a powerful position to make judgement on the two men. He met them, he pushed them, and they both beat him. The simple reasoning is that Floyd got a kid, and Terence got an old man – and both of those assumptions might be true. As an easy measure, Mayweather was unbeaten in 44 fights and 36 years old when he defeated Alvarez, while Crawford was aged 37 and unbeaten in 41 contests.

Those monumental few words uttered by Alvarez will now shape any debate about Crawford’s position in modern boxing.

So far, Crawford has won world titles at five different weights during 11 years of title fights; his weight has gone from 134 pounds (lightweight) to 167 pounds (super-middle). He has won 20 world title fights and stopped or knocked out 15 of his opponents. He is vicious, a genuinely destructive puncher and that is too often overlooked.

Mayweather has now finished with real fights but is unlikely to stop having carnival match-ups; he left the sport unbeaten in 50 fights, albeit the 50th was right on boxing’s tricky borders: He beat UFC star Conor McGregor in McGregor’s first professional boxing match. That fight remains a cash-cow of lunatic proportions. Crawford has fights like that to look forward to.

Much like Crawford, Mayweather won world titles at five weights, starting at super-feather in 1998 and continuing through to light-middleweight in 2013 when he beat Alvarez, having first won a crown at that weight when he beat Oscar De La Hoya in 2007. Mayweather increased from 130 pounds to 151 pounds in his career – he was at the latter weight for the 2012 defeat of Miguel Cotto. His increases are a lot smaller than Crawford’s jump in weight.

The comparisons between the two are endless and the opinions mostly unhelpful from both sides of the debate.

Crawford has not beaten the same number of names as Mayweather managed during his years of world title bouts and other big fights that never carried a belt. It’s an impressive and deep list; De La Hoya, Alvarez, Cotto, Shane Mosley, Manny Pacquiao, Ricky Hatton, Diego Corrales, Juan Manuel Marquez, Arturo Gatti and about a dozen other world champions. Mayweather outpointed most of them and many of the fights were tactical events, not spectacular shootouts. In most fights that went the full 12 rounds, Mayweather seldom lost more than one or two rounds.

Crawford has on his list a different group of fighters and he met a lot of men when there were no questions over their age, their desire or their health. Crawford has taken care of Amir Khan, Kell Brook, Shawn Porter, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Errol Spence and about a dozen top fighters. In world titles fights, he has met eight unbeaten men. Crawford lacks the big, big names that Mayweather has on his record, but there are far fewer accusations that he avoided certain fighters.

In all fairness, Spence vs Crawford, like Pacquiao vs Mayweather, happened long after it should have taken place.

A fight at welterweight between a peak Mayweather and Crawford would have been incredible to watch. However, both men deserve better than to be judged on fantasy fights rather than what they have each achieved in their long and distinguished careers.

Crawford is not finished yet and Mayweather is probably cursing his luck at being born 10 years before his natural enemy.

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