Terence Crawford has been around the sport of boxing long enough to know a great fighter when he sees one.

When The Ring’s No. 1 ranked junior middleweight came across Shakur Stevenson several years ago, he smiled. His smooth boxing ability, sharp defense, timely offense, and brazen trash talk are the sort of ingredients needed to make a once-in-a-generation type of fighter.

When the two are seen together, Crawford (41-0, 31 KOs) often refers to Stevenson as his little brother. The bond they share outside of the ring, however, isn’t clouding Crawford’s judgment. It also isn't an impediment to what he’s seeing with his own two eyes.

The lightweight division is littered with top-tier talent. From Gervonta Davis to Vasiliy Lomachenko, they've all proven themselves at the highest level. With that said, if any of those aforementioned fighters stood across Stevenson, they would all come up short.

“He’s a great fighter,” said Crawford to Ring Magazine during a recent sit-down interview. “These fighters can’t beat him.”

Somewhere halfway across the globe, Josh Padley is nodding his head in agreement. The highly ranked British contender barely laid a finger on Stevenson during their showdown a few weeks ago. Once he was softened up and battered during the latter rounds, Stevenson (23-0, 11 KOs) went in for the kill, stopping him in the 9th.

It was another picture-perfect performance for the current WBC lightweight champ. As a result, the comparisons between himself and the rest of the lightweight division’s elite will continue.

Ultimately, juxtaposing Stevenson with this current crop of fighters is a bit of a lazy exercise. Crawford, unsurprisingly, is a student of the game. He’s watched countless hours of tape on the great fighters of yesteryear. So, the 37-year-old knows more than most, the type of talent his good friend has.

Comparisons are both normal and common. At times, Crawford has been compared to Floyd Mayweather and Sugar Ray Leonard. Gervonta Davis has been mentioned in the same breath as Roberto Duran, not from an accomplishment standpoint but in terms of his skills. When it comes to Stevenson, Crawford scratches his head. The pound-for-pound star can rattle off Hall of Famers from the 50’s and 60’s all the way to today. But when he thinks of Stevenson, he doesn’t believe it’s apropos to compare anyone to him.

“He’s unnatural. He has his own style. There’s no fighter in history that has a style like Shakur Stevenson.”