Terence Crawford called time on his legendary career earlier this month and Jim Lampley believes there'll be no reversing the decision.

The five-division and three-time undisputed champion announced on December 16 that he would be moving on to the next chapter of his life, and Lampley, a 2015 Hall of Fame inductee, also says he’s one of the best to ever step into the ring in one of boxing’s best divisions.

“He architected most of his career's biggest accomplishments at 147,” Lampley told The Ring. “I think overall, he's still going to be seen as a great welterweight. Who is the greatest welterweight of all time? Sugar Ray Robinson, Ray Leonard, Tommy Hearns, there have been a lot of glorious welterweights. It's a glorious weight class. I think he is in the top four or five welterweights of all time at the very least, and that's a tremendous accomplishment.”

Lampley, 76, was HBO’s blow-by-blow commentator from 1988 to 2018. He’s also won four Sports Emmy Awards and has covered 14 Olympic Games.

Crawford (42-0, 31 KOs), 38, went 8-0 with eight knockouts at 147 pounds en route to becoming an undisputed champion for the second time in his career. His crowning achievement at welterweight came in his last act in the weight class, when he delivered a thorough beating in a dominant ninth-round stoppage of Errol Spence Jr. in July 2023 to win all of the belts in what was widely viewed as a 50-50 fight.

While becoming the undisputed champion in what has historically been one of boxing’s best divisions would be the pinnacle of most fighters’ careers, Lampley believes that Crawford’s best feat came in his last bout, when he moved up 14 pounds to defeat another fellow great of this era, Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, by unanimous decision on September 13 to become the undisputed super middleweight champion.

“Beating Canelo, that’s the ultimate career accomplishment for him so far,” Lampley said. “One reason for him to walk away would be what else is there on the horizon that matches the public impact of beating Canelo?

“Unless he's going to go to light heavyweight and fight somebody there, I don't see it …This is a remarkable crowning achievement for his career. He has proven more than almost anybody would have thought he could. Maybe the late Cameron Dunkin, back in the day, when he helped to convince Top Rank to put Crawford in against Bredis Prescott, could have foreseen that Terence could do all of this, but I don't know of anybody else who would have foreseen it.

"Every time I've spoken to him, I've been amazed at his level of self-possession, his level of self-definition [and] the spirited uniqueness of his goals. Unique is an overused word, but Terence is a unique fighter.”

Boxing is littered with many great champions who opted to make their return to the ring after announcing their retirement. Leonard, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are among the fighters who said they were done on multiple occasions only to later return to the ring.

After giving it some thought, Lampley believes Crawford is one of the few who will stay true to his word.

One example he pointed to was 2021 International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee, two-division champion and 2004 Olympic gold medalist, Andre Ward. Ward (32-0, 16 KOs) retired three months after earning arguably the best win of his career, an eighth-round stoppage of Sergey Kovalev on June 17, 2017. Ward was 33 years old when he announced his retirement.

While there have been occasional rumblings of Ward, 41, coming out of retirement to potentially face Anthony Joshua, a return to the squared circle is yet to happen. And with Lampley believing that Crawford and Ward are cut from a very similar cloth, he believes Crawford could follow suit and resist the temptation of coming out of retirement.

“At first I expressed doubt,” Lampley said. “I am now not inclined to push back against what Terrence Crawford says. He's a person of tremendous personal resolve. He is very self-defined. He has come from challenges in his background and has beaten them all back. He has proven to any intelligent analyst's satisfaction that he's the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

"It's a great moment to step out, if that’s what he wants to do.”