The time to fight Terence Crawford as a welterweight was when he was just starting out as one, some five-odd years ago, according to his longtime trainer Brian McIntyre.

A three-division titlist who started his career as a lightweight, the 35-year-old Crawford has long had to contend with criticism that he was simply too small to compete with the elite fighters in the welterweight ranks.

But the native of Omaha, Nebraska, put that critique firmly to bed last Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas when he stopped Errol Spence Jr. inside nine rounds in a dominant performance to become the undisputed welterweight champion.

After the fight, Crawford spoke about feeling vindicated after having been, as he put it, “blackballed” by the top fighters at 147, many of whom are aligned with Premier Boxing Champions, which backs not only Spence but also former titlists Keith Thurman and Danny Garcia. Previously promoted by Top Rank and then a free agent, Crawford entered into a relationship with PBC earlier this year in order to make the fight with Spence possible. Per the terms of their agreement, the loser, Spence, has the right to invoke a rematch within a short window.

In a recent interview, McIntyre contended that Spence’s best chance (as well as that of his peers) to beat Crawford was when Crawford was still feeling his way through the 147-pound division.  

“They f----- up and let him grow into the weight,” McIntyre told FightHype.com. “When we dominated 140, there was nothing left to do at 140, so we had to move up to 147. We didn’t have to, but we did because we wanted to and challenge ourselves. So when they (the top 147-pounders) kept running and running and running and kept making excuses for themselves, ‘You’re on the other side of the street,’ ‘You ain’t did this,’ he wasn’t doing nothing but growing as a man. You know what I’m sayin’?”

Should Crawford move up to the junior middleweight division, McIntyre issued a warning to those contenders at 154—and perhaps a veiled one to its current undisputed champion in Jermell Charlo.  

“So once he grew into that weight class, he could go to ’54,” McIntyre said. “If they do the same thing at ’54 (and make Crawford wait), he’s gonna end up doing the same f------ thing what he did at ’47.  I promise you that.”

Sean Nam is the author of Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing.